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294 Extrication of the Alkalifiable Metals, a * 
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that the deflagrator eminently associated the requisites of whic 
he was in search, and stated many facts and atguments tending 
with a deflagrator of three hundred pairs, each seven i 
three, I observed that, in a circuit made through a saturated solu- 
tion of chloride of ealcium, by means of a coarse offtina wire, 
(No. 14,) and a fine wire, (No. 26,) that when the latter was:made 
the cathode andthe former the anode, a most intefise ignition 
resulted, causing the rapid fusion of the fine wire into globules 
like common shot. But when the situations of the wires were 
reversed, so that the smaller wire was made to form the anode, 
the ignition became comparatively so feeble as to be incompetent 
to fuse the fine platina wire. This phenomen d continued 
to appear inexplicable, when, during the last winter, it occurred 
to me that the evolution and combustion of the calcium might be 
the cause of the superior heat produced at the cathode. v 
0 
This led to the employment of chlorides in the process 
Seebeck, Berzelius, and Pontin, for the production of amalgams 
from the earths, in which a cathode of mercury, and anode,of pla- 
tina were used. Accongingly, in operating with a deflagrator of 
three hundred and fifty Cruickshank pairs of seven inches by three, 
a mercurial amalgam was speedily obtained, which appeared suf- 
ficiently imbued with ‘calcium to become speedily buried under 
a pulverulent stratum of lime, and mercury in a minute state of 
division. 
Nevertheless, after exposure of the amalgam thus produced to 
the air, till all the calcium had been separated, and igniting the 
resulting powder to drive off the adhering mercury, the ratio of the 
weight of the lime thus obtained, to the mercury with which it — 
had been united, was not over a five hundredth part. With@ 
view to procure an amalgam in which the proportion of calcium 
should be greater, I was led to devise the following apparatus and 
process, of which an engraving and description are now laid be- 
fore the society.- 
How far the result of my exertions, subsequently stated, may 
be considered in advance of the steps previously taken, will be 
evident from the fact that all the knowledge which exists, te 
pecting the isolation of the metals of the alkaline earths, is due 
to the experiments and observations of Davy ; and to what point 
a 
