VOL. VI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 5QQ 



Of a Substance found in great Quantities in some Mines of Italy ; out of 

 which is made a Kind of incombustible Skin, Paper, and Candle^ 

 tvick. N" 72, p. 2I67. 



This account is taken from the third Venetian Journal de Letterati, of March 

 15, 1671, as follows : 



Signor Marco Antonio Castagna, superintendent of some mines in Italy, has 

 found in one of them a great quantity of that lanuginous stone called amianthus, 

 which he knows how to render so tractable and soft, that it resembles a very 

 fine lamb's-skin dressed white. He thickens and thins it to what degree he 

 pleases, and thereby makes it like cither a very white skin or paper; each of 

 which resists violent fire. To try this, the skin was covered with live coals, 

 whence it took flame ; but being afterwards taken out, the fiery colour pre- 

 sently disappeared, and it became cold and white again as before; the fire only 

 passing through, without waste or alteration; whereas some of the hardest 

 metals reduced to very thin [)lates, and kept as long in the fire, would cast 

 scales. This skin being made as thin as paper, not only yields that ancient and 

 so much admired amianthus, but also in a more perfect state than that which 

 comes from Cyprus, and not inferior to what sometimes comes from China. 

 Of the same matter this artist has wrought a wick, never to be consumed as 

 long as it is fed, nor altering its quality after the aliment is wasted away. 



Some Experiments of Signor Carolo Rinaldini, of the University of 

 Padua ; shozving the Difference of Ice made ivithout Air from that 

 luhich is produced with Air. From the Venetian Journal. N" 72, 

 p. 2169. 



A glass-cane was taken, about !-§- Florentine braccia or ell, open at one end, 

 of which above one ell and a quarter was filled with quicksilver, the rest with 

 common water. This open end was shut with a finger, and inverted into a 

 vessel with stagnant mercury ; then removing the finger, the mercury began to 

 fall out, so that the aggregate of the quicksilver and water falling, the water 

 remained in the upper part of the inverted cane, now free from air. This being 

 done, the cane was thus exposed to the open air in the month of January, in 

 frosty weather, and in one night the water in it was congealed into ice of a 

 very good consistence. Afterwards Signor Rinaldini, having compared this ice 

 with that which was produced in the open air, found, that the ice in the cane 

 was in substance like hail, that is, an opaque and whitish body; whereas what 

 was made in the air was transparent like crystal. He observed also that the 



