HYDROGEN AND OXYGEN. 55 



the quality and quantity of it. When the whole 

 was thus arranged, a fire was kinflled in the fur- 

 nace C F E D, and maintained in such a manner, 

 as to bring the glass tube E F to a red heat, but 

 without fusing it ; at the same time as much fire 

 was maintained in the furnace V V X X, as to 

 keep the water in the retort A in a continual state 

 of ebullition, 



In proportion as the water in the retort A as- 

 sumed the state of vapour by ebullition, it filled 

 the interior part of the tube E F, and expelled the 

 atmospheric air which was evacuated by the worm 

 S S, and the tube K K. The steam of the water 

 was afterwards condensed by cooling in the worm 

 S S, and fell drop by drop, in the state of water, 

 into the tubulated flask H. When the whole of 

 the water in the retort A was evaporated, and the 

 liquor in the vessels had been suffered to drain off 

 completely, there was found in the flask H a quan- 

 tity of water, exactly equal to that which was in 

 the retort A, and there had been no disengage- 

 ment of any gas \ so that this operation was merely 

 a common distillation, which gave absolutely the 

 same result as if the water had never been brought 

 to a state of incandescence, in passing through the 

 glass tube E F. 



Experiment II.- Every thing being arranged as 

 in the preceding experiment, twenty-eight grains 

 of charcoal reduced to particles of a moderate size, 

 and which had been previously exposed for a long 

 time to a white heat in close vessels, were intro- 

 duced into the glass tube E F. The operation was 

 then conducted as before, and the water in the re- 

 tort A kept in a continual state of ebullition, till it 

 was totally evaporated. 



The water in the retort A was distilled as in the 



