i:,ySi' EttpnlmwU an the Oxidatlon^i)/ Metals, IgEUSlmUf, 



IV. 



<A Merles of Experiments upon Metals ivith an EleBrical Battery, Jljeioing their Property tf 



abfirblng the Ox'igen from tk* Atmofphere luhsn exploded by EleBric Difcharges. By JoHS 



CuTRBERTSOSt PhUofophical Injlrument Maker, JVa. 54, Poland Street-, London. Com- 



'tauiiicated b\ the Author, 

 f •' 



HE difcovery that metals could be fufed by eleflric difcharges, gave rife to a fuppofi- 

 tion that they might alfo be converted into oxides of the fame means. Many attempts have 

 been' made to afcertaln this, but the fa£l: has hitherto remained without proof. In the year 

 1787, Dr. Van Marum and myfelf produced flocull from different metals by fubjefting 

 them to ftrong eledlric difcharges, and alfo formed beautiful figures upon paper by exploding 

 metallic wires extended at a fmall diftance from its furfacc. We imagined that the flocull, 

 as well as the coloured figures upon the paper, were oxides of the metals we made ufe of ; 

 and in order to prove this, we entered upon a courfe of experiments. But having, per- 

 haps from improper management, the misfortune to break feveral glaffes in the procefs, 

 Dr. Van Marum declared himfelf fo much difcouraged by thefe accidents, as to decline 

 profecuting the fubje£l.* When we confider, however, the opulence of the fociety of 

 which he was direftor, it is not eafy to conceive that fo trifling an accident as the iradturc 

 of a few glafles (hould be a fufficient reafon for his rellnqulfliing this Inveftigation, more 

 efpecially as he had the command of an eleftrlcal apparatus which I made for that fociety, 

 not only the moft proper for that purpofe, but unequalled in the whole world, and from 

 which I now fear we have little to expefl:. 



In 1793 — 1794, I undertook two different courfes of experiments at Amfterdam upon 

 the fame fubjedl ; but both ended unfatlsfadborily, and afforded very little more information 

 than we before poffeffed. \ 



On my return to London, after delivering a courfe of le£lures upon eleftricity, I once 

 rnore returned to the above-mentioned fubjeft. My previous experiments had taught 

 liie that it was neceffary to have an apparatus into which atmofpherical air or gas could be 

 introduced, and any defirable quantity of metallic wire, fo that it would be exploded at 

 plcafure, and the diminution of the air or gas accurately meafured. I invented the follow- 

 ing apparatus, which poffeffed all the requifites. 



• Second Continuation des Experiences faites par la Moyen de la Machine Eleftrique Teglerienne par 

 Martinus van Marum a Haarlem, page 272. 

 + Eigenfshappen der Eleftricitiet 3de. deel blad. 2, 143, Amfterdam, 1794, door John Cuthbertfon. 



Defcription 



