32 Improvements im Physical Science (Jan. 
the flame of a spirit lamp. This method has been lately tried by 
Professor Stromeyer, of Gottingen, and he has obtained by means 
of it some unexpected results. (Schweigger’s Journal, xv. 270.) 
Platinum wire 1°75 millimetres in diameter melted very speedily. 
When its diameter was only 0°5 millimetre, it burned brilliantly. 
Jron wire several millimetres in diameter melted rapidly, and 
burned; and a watch-spring burned with the same brilliancy as 
it would have done in oxygen gas. Rock crystal and common 
quartz in small fragments melted completely into a glass bead. The 
same experiments were tried with lime and magnesia; but the 
success was not so complete. The surface was converted into an 
enamel, and the sharp edges were blunted ; so that Stromeyer has 
little doubt that he will be ultimately able to fuse both of these 
bodies, hitherto considered to be completely refractory. 
VIII. SIMPLE SUPPORTERS. 
1. Oxygen and chlorine.—Hitherto only three compounds of 
oxygen and chlorine have been discovered ; namely, 1. Proto-chlo- 
vous oxide, or the euchlorine of Davy, composed of one atom chlo- 
rine and one atom oxygen. 2. Deuto-chlorous oxide, the new gas 
discovered by Davy, and described in the Phil. Trans. for 1815. 
(See Annals, vii. 28.) According to his experiments it is composed 
of one atom chlorine and four atoms oxygen. 3. The chloric acid 
of Gay-Lussac, obtained by decomposing chlorate of barytes by 
means of sulphuric acid, and composed, according to his experi- 
ments, of one atom chlorine and five atoms oxygen. In Gilbert’s 
Annalen, lili. 197, or the second number of that work for 1816, 
there is a curious paper, by Frederick, Count of Stadion, in 
Vienna, On the Combinations of Chlorine and Oxygen. He does 
not appear to have been acquainted with the late experiments of 
Davy; but he discovered the dewto-chlorous oxide nearly in the 
same way that Davy had done. His method was to fuse a small 
quantity of chlorate of potash in a retort, to allow it to cool, and 
then to pour over it concentrated sulphuric acid. This mixture 
being exposed for three hours to the heat of a water-bath gradually 
raised from 54°5° to 212°, the new gas came over, and was re- 
ceived over mercury. Its properties were as follows :— 
It has a lively-yellow colour, much more intense than that of 
proto-chlorous oxide. Its smell is quite peculiar, and does not occa- 
sion eatarrh, “as is the case with chlorine. It does not alter blue 
paper. It may be preserved unaltered in the dark, provided it be 
not in contact with combustible or alkaline bodies; but when ex- 
posed to the rays of the sun, its bulk is increased, and it is decom- 
posed into chlorine and oxygen. Heat and electric sparks occasion 
the same decomposition. When raised to a temperature between 
112° and 144°, it explodes. It explodes, likewise, when an electric 
spark is passed through it. When thus decomposed over mercury, 
the chlorine unites with the mercury, and leaves a quantity of 
oxygen equal to the original bulk of the gas. From other experi- 
