gg4' JHIIOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNO 1694. 



Experiments relating to the Production of Fire and Flame, with an Explosion, 

 made by the Mixture of two Liquors actually cold. By Frederick Slare, M. D. 

 Censor and Fellow of the College of Physicians, and F. R. S. N° 213, p. 201. 



I gave an account of several experiments * made by the mixture of various 

 liquors, some of them produced much heat, others a great ebullition with a 

 cold effect, others sparks of fire without ebullition, and some few that produced 

 an actual flame ; but the difficulty to make the phosphorus, which was used 

 in the greatest of these flaming experiments, is such as has made that sort of 

 experiment scarcely credible by some, and practicable by few ; insomuch that I 

 question not but that it will be grateful to the curious virtuoso of this age, to 

 see two clear liquors both of them actually cold, without any intermediate or 

 third body, rise up to a flame by kindling one another; besides having made it 

 easy for them to make or procure the ingredients which perform this, not 

 common effect, it may yet be more acceptable. 



To make the experiment of Recension. — ^Take of any one of the essential oils, 

 set down in the preceding catalogue, one part, of the compound spirit of nitre 

 two parts, and they will with great celerity and a great noise produce a flame, 

 which lasts a very little while, but leaves an insipid caput mortuum, as light 

 and tasteless as a cobweb. 



But note, 1. This experiment should be made under a chimney, or any con- 

 venient draft, that the offensive steams may evaporate. 2. A gallipot, spacious 

 enough to hold 4 or 5 ounces of water may be a convenient vessel for this 

 experiment, if you only use about a dram of each ingredient ; but if you use 

 larger quantities, then you must enlarge the vessel. 3. You must put the oil 

 into the gallipot first, and then pour the spirit on the oil, because the spirit, 

 being heavier, the latter passes through the oil, and makes a more expeditious 

 mixture. This must not be dropped in gradually, but all at once. 4. Hold 

 not your head too near the gallipot, lest the sudden explosion of the matter 

 should strike up some of it into your face. 5. The compound spirit will lose 

 much of its virtue if kept too long. 



To prepare the spirits for this experiment. — Take of salt-petre and oil of 

 vitriol equal parts, and distil these out of a retort in a good sand furnace, so that 

 the sand continue red-hot for some hours, for the fire cannot be too great ; the 

 fumes will rise of a very deep red colour, and will settle in the receiver, in the 

 form of a liquor, which must be carefully preserved from the air ; this being 

 the spirit with which all our experiments were made, which are referred to in the 



* Philosophical Transactions for 168S.— Orig. 



