JOURNAL 



O F 



NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, CHEMISTRY, 



AND 



THE ARTS. 



AUGUST 1800. 



ARTICLE I. 



Experiments on the ProduSion of Air by the Freezing of Water. By JfosEPa PRlESTlEy, 

 LL.D. F.R,S, &c. &c. Communicated by the Author. 



An 17935 when I was in England, I publiflied an account of a courfe of experiments 

 on the generation of air from luater, and, after my arrival in this country, I publifhed a 

 fequel to them. The refult of the whole was that, after all air had, in every known 

 method, been extradled from any quantity of water, whenever any portion of it was con- 

 verted into vapour, a bubble of permanent air was formed, and this was always phlogif- 

 ticated. The procefs with the torricellian vacuum I continued fome years, and found 

 the produflion of air equable to the laft. 



The neceflary inference from thefe experiments is either that water is convertible into 

 phlogifticated air, or that it contains more of this air intimately combined with it than 

 can, by this procefs, be extradled in any reafonable time. 



Finding that no air is contained in ice that is free from vifible bubbles, I thought to 

 afcertain the truth of one of thofe hypothefes by expofing to cold a quantity of water 

 from which I had, by repeated procefies with the torricellian vacuum, expelled all the air 

 that I pofTibly could ; thinking that if it really contained no air, it would appear by the 



Vol, IV.— August 1800. C c ice 



