368 Account of some new Experiments 



quantity of ashes, of a white colour inclining a little to 

 yellow. 



The yellow ashes in the plate that was not covered 

 with a glass jar were deranged and dispersed by the 

 wind occasioned by opening the door of the stove too 

 suddenly ; but those in the other plate, being protected 

 by the glass, were found all together. As they still re- 

 tained their original figure of shavings, though reduced 

 to a very small bulk, this appeared to me a demonstra- 

 tive proof that the shavings, whence they arose, had not 

 been burned by a common fire. For this reason, and 

 also on account of their extraordinary colour, approach- 

 ing very near that of the wood in its natural state, I 

 preserved them, to show them to the Class. They 

 weighed only 0.04 of a gramme ; and as the shavings, 

 of which they were the remains, weighed 2.987 grammes 

 on coming out of the hands of the joiner, these ashes 

 make only one and one third per cent of the weight 

 of the wood. 



The third parcel of shavings, which had been placed 

 in a narrow glass vessel, had not disappeared, but the 

 wood was converted into perfect charcoal. I have the 

 honour to present it to the Class, in the same vessel in 

 which it was charred. 



As the three parcels of shavings were of the same 

 wood, and equal in weight ; as they were exposed to- 

 gether to the same degree of heat, and for the same 

 time ; and as the two portions that were placed so as to 

 facilitate the escape of the carbonic acid gas arising from 

 their decomposition, disappeared entirely, while the 

 third, which was so circumstanced that the escape of this 

 gas was impossible, did not disappear ; it seems to me 

 that there can be no doubt of the cause of the phenom- 



