RECORDS 



OF 



GENERAL SCIENCE. 



Article I. 



Notice of Carburet of Potassium, and of a New Gaseous 

 Bi-carhuret of Hydrogen. By Edmund Davy, Esq., 

 Professor of Chemistry to the Royal Dublin Spciety. 



(^Communicated to the British Association, ^6th August, 1836.) 



In January last, the author made different experiments to 

 obtain the metal of potash on a large scale, by exposing 

 to a high temperature, in an iron bottle, a mixture of 

 previously ignited tartar and charcoal powder, in propor- 

 tions of the latter varying from about ^^^th to ^^ih of the 

 whole mass. 



In one experiment, a substance was obtained of a dark 

 gray colour, rather soft to the knife, though adhering with 

 tenacity to the iron, and inclining to a granular structure. 

 This substance, when put into water, decomposes it with 

 great facility, carbonaceous matter is disengaged, and gas 

 copiously evolved, with occasional inflammations on the 

 surface, as is commonly the case with potassium under 

 similar circumstances. The gas, when examined, was 

 found to consist of hydrogen, and a new bi-carburet of 

 hydrogen, (noticed in a subsequent part of this communi- 

 cation), in nearly equal volumes. The author regards the 

 substance in question as a mixture of potassium and car- 

 buret of potassium ; the former, by its action on water fur- 

 nishing the hydrogen, the latter, the new gas. In collect- 

 ing gas from the substance, by the action of water over 

 mercury, a novel and interesting case of combustion was 

 observed. A little of the substance being placed in a tube 



VOL. IV. Y 



