Electricity — Chemistry. 355 



ter were distinct, like those accompanying the bursting of a rocket, but by 

 no means so numerous. — Two gentlemen who were in the boat with me at 

 the time also saw it. — Sillimans Journal. 



ELECTRICITY. 



7. Influence of Electricity on the Emanation of Odours. — When a con- 

 tinued current of electricity traverses an odoriferous body, camphor for ex- 

 ample, the odour of this substance becomes more and more feeble, and at 

 last entirely disappears. When this has taken place, and when the body 

 withdrawn from all electrical influence, is put in communication with 

 the ground, it will remain without odour for some time. The camphor, 

 however, resumes its former properties gradually and slowly. M. Libri 

 of Florence, the author of this curious experiment, has promised to describe 

 it with more detail. 



8. On the production of Fulminary Tubes by Electricity. — Our readers 

 will no doubt have heard of the long tubes produced by the passage of 

 lightning through beds of sand. Dr Fiedler has collected many of these 

 tubes from different localities, and specimens of them have already found 

 their way into several collections of minerals. These tubes are formed by 

 the agglutination of the particles of sand by the action of the electric fluid. 



The idea occurred to M. Hachette of attempting to make similar tubes 

 with an electrical battery. He and M. Savart, and M. Beudant accordingly 

 placed a quantity of pounded glass in a hole made in a brick, and having 

 made the discharge of the battery pass through the pounded glass, they 

 obtained tubes similar to those found in nature. One of these was an 

 inch long, its exterior diameter varied from one-eighth of an inch to one- 

 sixteenth, and the inner diameter was the fiftieth of an inch. 



In another experiment in which the pounded glass was mixed with a 

 little chloride of sodium, the tube was ljth incli long, and of equal diame- 

 ter throughout. Its mean exterior diameter was one-fifth of an inch, and 

 its interior diameter one-twelfth. 



They could not produce the tubes by using powder of felspar or pound- 

 ed quartz. — Ann. de Chim. Tom. xxvii p. 319. March 1828. 



II. CHEMISTRY. 



9. Sulphuret of Aluminium. — Sulphur may be distilled from aluminium 

 without any combination taking place. But if a piece of sulphur is drop- 

 ped on aluminium when strongly incandescent, so that it may be enve- 

 loped in an atmosphere of the vapour of sulphur, the union is effected with 

 vivid emission of light. The resulting sulphuret is a partially vitrified, semi- 

 metallic mass, which acquires an iron-black metallic lustre when burnish- 

 ed. On exposure to the air it smells strongly of sulphuretted hydrogen, 

 swells up gradually, and falls into a gray powder. Applied to the tongue 

 it excites a pricking warm taste of sulphuretted hydrogen gas. In pure 

 water sulphuretted hydrogen gas is rapidly disengaged, and gray alumina 

 is separated. 



