6 ELECTRO-CHEMISTRY. 



neither combustion nor action of any kind. I intro- 

 duced a sharp-pointed wire into the tube, with a 

 view of extracting what remained of the potassium ; 

 but the instant that I touched the potassium with the 

 wire, the whole exploded in my hand. How is it 

 that the properties and external characters of this 

 substance were so very different from the properties 

 and external characters of potassium ? Is it that 

 potassium, deprived of its negative electricity, pos- 

 sesses properties and external characters, such as I 

 have described? I now examined the contents of 

 the other tube. It was evident that oxygen had 

 been disengaged from the chlorate of potassa, and 

 that the residual constituents were those of the 

 chloride of potassium. The only other change which 

 had taken place was, that the surface of the tube 

 appeared to be bedewed with moisture. 



5. This first experiment was an earnest of what 

 I might realise when provided with a suitable 

 apparatus, and with those tubes which resist an 

 intense heat, without fusion and without fracture. 

 In the prosecution of my experiments, I found that 

 flint glass tubes were not suitable, as they contained 

 lead in their composition, which renders them easily 

 fusible, and the materials which I introduced into 

 them were generally blown out, or a rupture of the 



