108 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



the vapor itself. When it was permitted to enter the ex- 

 perimental tube unmixed with air or any other gas, the 

 effect was substantially the same. Hence the seat of the 

 observed action is the vapor. 



This action is not to be ascribed to heat. As regards 

 the glass of the experimental tube, and the air within the 

 tube, the beam employed in these experiments was per- 

 fectly cold. It had been sifted by passing it through a 

 solution of alum and through the thick double-convex lens 

 of the lamp. When the unsifted beam of the lamp was 

 employed, the effect was still the same; the obscure calo- 

 rific rays did not appear to interfere with the result. 



My object here being simply to point out to chemists 

 a method of experiment which reveals a new and beau- 

 tiful series of reactions, I left to them the examination 

 of the products of decomposition. The group of atoms 

 forming the molecule of nitrite of amyl is obviously 

 shaken asunder by certain specific waves of the electric 

 beam, nitric oxide and other products, of which the ni- 

 trate of amyl is probably one, being the result of the 

 decomposition. The brown fumes of nitrous acid were 

 seen mingling with the cloud within the experimental 

 tube. The nitrate of amyl, being less volatile than the 

 nitrite, and not being able to maintain itself in the con- 

 dition of vapor, would be precipitated as a visible cloud 

 along the track of the beam. 



In the anterior portions of the tube a powerful sifting 

 of the beam by the vapor occurs, which diminishes the 

 chemical action in the posterior portions. In some ex- 

 periments the precipitated cloud only extended half-way 

 down the tube. When, under these circumstances, .the 

 lamp was shifted so as to send the beam through the 



