On a new detonating Compound. 191 
chloriné under circumstances which I had never tried. be- 
fore, that of presenting them to each other artificially 
cooled, the azote being in a nascent state. For this pur- 
pose I ‘made a solution of ammonia, cooled it by a mixture 
_ of ice and miuriate of lime, and slowly passed into it 
chlorine, cooled by the same means. There was imme- 
diately a violent action, accompanied by fumes of a pecu- 
liarly disagreeable smell; at the same time a yellow sub- 
stance was seen to form in minute films on the surface of 
the liquor ; but it was evanescent, and immediately resolved 
itself into gas. I was preparing to repeat the experiment, 
substituting the prussiate of ammonia and other ammonia- 
eal compounds, in which Jess heat might be produced by 
the action of the chlurine, than in the pure solution of the 
gas, when my friend Mr. J.G.Children put me in mind 
of a circumstance of which he had written to me an ac- 
count, in the end of July, which promised to elucidate the 
inquiry, viz. that Mr. James Burton, jun. in exposing 
chlorine to a solution of nitrate of ammonia, had observed 
the formation of a yellow oil, which he had not been able 
to collect so as to examine its properties, as it was ra- 
pidly dissipated by exposure to the atmosphere. Mr. Chil- 
dren had tried the same experiment with similar results, 
I immediately exposed a phial, containing about six cu- 
bical inches of chlorine, to a saturated solution of nitrate 
of ammonia, at the temperature of about 50° in common 
day-light. A diminution of the gas speedily took place 5 
ina few minutes a film, which had the appearance of oil, 
was seen on the surface of the fluid ; by shaking the phial 
it collected in small globules, and fell to the bottom. I 
took out one of the globules, and exposed it in contact 
with water to a gentle heat: long before the water began 
to boil, it exploded with a very brillant hght, but without 
any violence of sound. 
F inmmaediately proposed to Mr. Children, that we should 
institute a series of experiments upon its preparation and 
its properties. We consequently commenced the opera- 
tions, the results of which I shall describe. We were as 
sisted in our labours, which were carried on in Mr. Chil- 
dren’s laboratory at Tunbridge, by Mr. Warburton. 
It was found that the solution of oxalate of ammonia, or 
a very weak solution of pure ammonia, answered the pur- 
pose as well as the solution of nitrate of ammenia. It was 
formed most rapidly in the solution of ammonia, but it 
was white and clouded; and though less evanescent than 
in the strong solution I first used, it was far from being 
as 
