Miscellanies. bas 189 
_ ratus known as “ Daniell’s sustaining battery,” he c of 
which had done him great honor; but Dr. Hare aves, . 
ever preferable might be a battery of that kind, in processes requiri ng 
a permanent current; for a transient energetic ignition, such as is 
most suitable for blasting, the calorimotors which he had contrived, 
would be decidedly more efficacious. 
Dr. Hare further communicated the results of his recent experi- 
ments to obtain calcium, as follows: 
By igniting an equivalent weight of lime with an equivalent and a 
half of crystallized bicyanide of mercury, in two successive experi- 
ments, residual masses were obtained, which, within a small fraction, 
had the weight which would have resulted from the union of an 
equivalent of calcium, with an equivalent of ‘eyanogen. A portion 
of the compound thus made, was placed between electrodes of char- 
coal, the lower piece being excavated slightly to receive it, and the 
upper one being so shaped as to enter the cavity. The electrodes 
Were severally supported by copper rods passing through stuffing 
boxes, so as to be included within a glass receiver, ground to fit air 
tight upon an extra air-pump plate. In consequence of this arrange- 
ment, the receiver could be exhausted of air, and the electrodes con- 
sequently ieee in vacuo, or in an atmosphere of hydrogen, as 
might be deemed pre e. The lower electrode formed the ca- 
thode, the upper the an de, of two hundred pairs, each com prising 2 
one hundred square inches of zinc surface. ‘Under these circum- 3 
stances, when the circuit was completed, by throwing the usual charge 
of acid upon the plates, the most intense ignition ensued. The sup- 
posed compound of cyanogen appears to be an excellent conductor, 
and nothing could exceed the splendor of the purple light emitted 
during its deflagration. It was too vivid, however, for more than a 
transient endurance by an eye unprotected by deep colored glasses. 
After the compound was adjudged to be sufficiently deflagrated, and 
time had been allowed for refrigeration, on lifting the receiver, masses 
were found upon the coal which had a metallic appearance, and which, 
when moistened, produced an effluvium, of which the smell was like 
that which had been observed to Be generated under like circumstan- 
ces, by the siliciuret of potassiu 
Similar results had been at by the deflagration, ina like man- 
ner, of a compound procured by passing cyanogen over guicklime, 
enclosed in a porcelain tube heated to incan c 
Phosphuret of calcium, when carefully prepared, and subsequenily. 
well heated, was found to be an excellent conductor of the voltaic 
current, evolved from the apparatus above mentioned. Hence it was _ 
thought expedient to expose it in the circuit of the deflagrator, both 
ca 
