19S New EleSiric Experiments. 



count tried to inflame it, but without fuccefs : he condenfed 

 the air he obtained till it almoft equalled in that refpecl: at- 

 mofpheric air, by immerfing the barometric tube in a wider 

 one filled with quickfilver ; but inflammation did not take 

 place until a little oxygen gas or atmofpheric air was intro- 

 duced into it. Hence there was reafon to conclude that in- 

 flammable air only was obtained from the water; and Dr. 

 Van Marum acknowledges that it is difficult to explain what 

 'came of the oxygen, the other component part of the water. 

 Why, fays he, did it not form itfelf into oxygen gas with the 

 caloric produced from the electric matter ? But it is poffible, 

 adds he, that this laft formation may be much more difficult 

 than the former ; and, as it appeared from former experi- 

 ments, 4hat the electric fpark decompofed oxygen gas, its 

 .oxygen may have paffed into the mercury, and the caloric 

 may have efcaped : no fignS of oxydation, however, were 

 obferved on the mercury. 



All the kinds of air produced in this manner, that from 

 water excepted, fully retained their elasticity ; for even at the 

 end of a year no leflening of them was obferved in the tubes, 

 though kept under a prelTure equal to that of the atmofpherc. 

 Electricity, therefore, had effected in thefe experiments what 

 had been formerly afcribed to caloric, and they feemed to 

 prove that caloric exifts in the electric fluid. This much 

 however is evident, that the electric fluid is not caloric itfelf, 

 othcrwife it muft heat thofe bodies through which it pafies ; 

 but this is not the cafe : it appears alfo that in the electric 

 fparks it is combined with fome other fubftance which pre*- 

 vents it from communicating heat to bodies ; and perhaps it 

 is in a condition to do fo only when it is difengaged, and be- 

 comes free by the electric matter being decompofed. 



Whether this other fubftance may not be the matter of 

 jifrhtj and whether during thefe experiments it pafTed through 

 : he fides of the glafs, as no figns of any other matter on the 

 glafs could be obferved, he could not decide. All the caloric 

 difengaged was not, however, employed in the formation of 

 inflammable air: a part of it remained free, and heated the 

 tubes, which within live minutes were at a temperature equal 

 ■to j 50 degrees of Fahrenheit, 



5. Ex- 



