320 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



tube, was known in this country, Professor Silliman 

 repeated the process with success, obtaining potas 

 sium for the first time, it is believed, in America.* 

 He was the first to notice and record the effect of 

 a powerful voltaic battery in volatilizing carbon and 

 transferring it from the positive to the negative pole 

 in a state of vapor. His paper on this subject is 

 full of curious interest, and was a long way in ad 

 vance of the then existing state of knowledge.! Pro 

 fessor Silliman labored zealously with the oxy-hydro- 

 gen blow-pipe of Dr. Hare, to determine the fusi 

 bility of different substances, and made interesting 

 discoveries in this direction. His investigation in 

 reference to the Weston Meteor has already been 

 mentioned. Such labors indicate that he was not 

 indifferent or inactive in respect to the progress of 

 the sciences which he taught. But his fame rests 

 upon his work as a pioneer, opening the way in this 

 country for new branches of science, and securing 

 for them countenance and respect, and as a teacher 

 who inculcated scientific truth in a way to interest, 

 in an almost unexampled degree, his auditors. His 

 enthusiasm kindled the enthusiasm of others. 



"As a lecturer," says President Woolsey, "he was al 

 most unsurpassed. Without a severe logical method, he 

 threw so much zeal into his discourse, expressed himself 

 with such an attractive rhetoric, and supported his doc 

 trine by experiments of such almost unfailing beauty and 

 success, that all audiences delighted to hear him ; so that 

 for years no lecturer so attractive could address an assem 

 bly, whether gathered within the walls of a college or from 



* This was in 1808. See a note in his Chemistry, Vol. I. p. 246. 

 t See Prof. Silliman' s Letter to Dr. Hare, Silliman 1 s Journal, [I.] V. 

 108, (1822.) 



