178 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



nals, nothing can be expected from such a source. Unphonetic works 

 on the EngHsh dialects are numerous, but they are almost useless, be- 

 cause unpronounceable ; the word ' wapse,' for example, which is a 

 form of the German wespe and the English wasp.'''' 



Professor Horsford illustrated ''the spheroidal state of wa- 

 ter," by several experiments. He also communicated the fol- 

 lowing 



" Results of some Experiments on the Explosions of Burning-Fluids. 



" It has been maintained, that several of the various preparations, 

 used under the general denomination of Burning-Fluids, are, in certain 

 conditions, explosive. It has been asserted, on the other hand, by 

 venders, that they are not explosive. Wherein the misapprehension 

 lies, how the numerous accidents that have occurred in the use of 

 these preparations are to be explained, and by what precautions such 

 accidents may be prevented, have been subjects of experimental 

 inquiry. 



" The burning-fluids, as a class, are rectified spirits of turpentine, or 

 turpentine with an admixture of a small percentage of alcohol, or of 

 some other inflammable body readily mixing with or soluble in tur- 

 pentine. 



Turpentine, alcohol, ether, and the burning-fluids, when fired in an 

 open vessel, burn at the surface as long as a supply of oxygen is 

 kept up. (a) A slight report attends the flash of flame at the com- 

 mencement of the combustion, {h) The accidents with burning-fluids 

 have ordinarily occurred during the filling of lamps from the cans, 

 when the chamber of space above the fluid within the can or lamp 

 was large, and always in the presence of flame, {h) A mixture of 

 hydrogen (an inflammable gas) with oxygen (an ingredient of atmos- 

 pheric air), in the proportion of two volumes of the former to one of 

 the latter, is eminently explosive, (c) Atmospheric air, substituted 

 for oxygen, lessens the violence of the explosion when flame is ap- 

 plied, {d) The carbo-hydrogen, employed for city illumination, may 

 be substituted for the hydrogen, and the explosive property, somewhat 

 impaired, be still possessed by the mixture, (e) Certain proportions of 

 the gases are better suited to produce violence of explosion, {f) 



" It has been found that the vapor of common spirits of wine, 

 ether, and of two varieties of burning-fluid, may severally be substi- 



