Scitntific Newt, Accounts of Booh, bfc» i§l 



zinc wire E w^s corroded. And I make no doubt that a fimilar effeft would be produced, 

 if any number of tubes were conncfted in a fimilar manner, by which means a hrge quan- 

 tity of gas might be procured in a fliort time. 



Befides filver wires, I likewife employed thofe of copper or iron, and it did not appear 

 that thefe were more corroded or a£ted upon than the filver ; indeed, in fome of the above 

 experiments, not lefs than half, or three quarters of an inch of the wire was intirely con- 

 fumed. The copper wire connefted with the zinc gives out a greenifh blue fiibftance re- 

 fembling the nitrate of copper with excefs of the metal, or when part of the acid has been 

 expelled by heat, &c. In examining the gas which was procured at diiFerent . times, I 

 always found it mixed with a little oxygen gas, but fometimes this, did not exceed \ of the 

 whole in bulk ; however, I paid but little attention to this part of the procefs, for as my 

 wires were always corroded, no conclufion with regard to the compofition of water could 

 be drawn from it. 



Atprefent I fliall only further obferve, that by making the galvanic influence pafs through 

 a quantity of diftiiled water confined in a tube over mercury, for abput 48 hours, a mani- 

 feft diminution of the fluid was perceived. 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS, ACCOUNTS OF BOOKS, SCc. 



Magnetic Dip tU- Pr'aice of Wain's IJland. 



M, 



.R. George Thomas Staunton, in a letter to his father, Sir George Staunton, Bart, 

 dated Prince of Wales's Ifland, Nov. 4, 1799, ftates,, that " our landing at this place has 

 " enabled me to make ufe of the dipping needle, which I brought on ftiore, and found. 

 •' that by the means of feveral obfervations, the fouth pole of the needle dipped five dc- 

 " greeS ten minutes." 



hiftijtbility of Ttingjlerii 



f The fpecific gravity of Tungften has not been afcertained with precifion, on account -of 

 the extreme difikulty of fufing this metallic fubftance. Guyton, in a fire urged by the 

 blaft of three pipes to 185 degrees of the pyrometer, obtained a well rounded piece of 

 35 grammes. But it broke in the vice, and exhibited a central portion,, which was only 

 agglutinated, and foon acquired a purple colour by expofure to the air. He found that the 



Weill 



