350 EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS. 



experiments which are similarly explicable ; but, though 

 noting the results, he nowhere, as far as I am aware, attributes 

 them to any specific peculiarity of hydrogen. 



Of the phenomenon which I have examined in this paper 

 I first published an account in connection with some experi- 

 ments on the application of voltaic ignition to lighting mines, 

 and it does not appear impossible that the experiments now 

 detailed may ultimately find some beneficial application in 

 solving the problem of a safety-light for mines. A light which 

 is just able to support itself under the cooling effect of ordinary 

 atmospheric air would be extinguished by air mixed with 

 hydrogenous gas. 



I am far from pretending to have devised any means of 

 fulfilling these conditions, and yet supplying an efficient light ; 

 I merely throw it out as a suggestion for consideration, 

 knowing that there are no additions to our knowledge which 

 are not ultimately valuable in their practical application ; and 

 that a suggestion, however vague a new point to those 

 whose minds may be occupied with the subject may lead 

 them to results which he who makes the suggestion is unable 

 to attain. 



P.S. Since this paper was communicated I have received 

 a paper from Dr. Andrews, of Belfast, who published as early 

 as 1840, in the ' Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy,' 

 experiments similar to those of mine first published in 1845. 

 My experiments were made in the same year as those of Dr. 

 Andrews, but as I withheld their publication, Dr. Andrews is 

 fully entitled to priority. Had I known of his experiments 

 earlier, I should have recited them in the first part of this 

 paper. 



ON THE PROGRESS MADE IN THE APPLICATION OF 

 ELECTRICITY AS A MOTIVE POWER. 



Royal Institution, February 9. Literary Gazette, February 17, 1844. 



THE object of this lecture was to review the various applica- 

 tions of the electro-magnetic force which have been made since 



