relating io Air and Water, 28 1 



began with this, with a view to afcertaiii whether any Wiitcr 

 is produced when the air is made to dlf:ippear in it. i\ccord- 

 ingly, into a glafs veflel containing 7 ounce meafares of pretty 

 pure dephlogifticated air, I introduced a quantity of iron turn- 

 ings (which is iron in fmall thin pieces, exceedingly conve- 

 nient for thefe and many other experiments) having previoufly 

 made them, together with the veiTcl, the air, and the mercury 

 by which it was confined, as dry as I poffibly could AHo, to 

 prevent the air from, imbibing any moifture, I received it imme- 

 diately in the veffel in which the experiment was made, from 

 the procefs of procurhig it from red precipitate ; fo that it had 

 never been in contact with any water. 



I then fired the iron, by means of a burning lens, and pre- 

 fently reduced the 7 ounce meafures of air to .65 ; but I found no 

 more water after this procefs than I imagined it had not been 

 poffibie for me to exclude, as it bore no proportion to the air 

 which had difappeared. Examining the refiduum of the air, I 

 found one-fifth of it to be fixed air, and when I tried the purity 

 of that which remained by the tefi- of nitrous air, it did not 

 appear that any phlogifticated air had been produced in the pro- 

 cefs : for though it was more impure than I fuppofc the air 

 with which I began the experiment muft have been, it was not 

 more fo than the phlogifticated air of the 7 ounce meafures, 

 which had not been affe£led by the procefs, and which muft 

 have been contained in tne refiduum, would neceilarily make 

 it. In this cafe one meafure of this refiduum and two of ni- 

 trous air occupied the fpace of .32. 



In another experiment of this kind, ten ounce meafures of 

 dephlogifticated air were reduced to .8, and by wafliing in lime 

 water to . :8. In another experiment, in which 7! ounce mea- 

 fures of dephlogifi:icated air were reduced to half an ounce 

 Vol, LXXV. O o meafure, 



