306 Description of an Apparatus for ~~ - 
= 
ing the voltaic circuit, my apparatus and mode of manipulation 
will be interesting to chemists. ‘i 
An equivalent of quicklime, made with great care from pure 
crystallized spar, was well mingled, by trituration, with an equiv- 
alent and ahalf of bicyanide of mercury, and was then enclo- 
sed within a covered porcelain crucible. The crucible was in- 
- eluded within an iron alembic, such as has been described by me 
in this volume, as employed for the isolation of metallic radicals. 
(See page 300. ) 
The whole was exposed to heat approaching to redness. In 
two experiments the residual mass had such a weight as would 
result from the union of an equivalent of cyanogen with an 
equivalent of calcium. Pe A 
A similar mixture being made, and, in like manner, enclosed 
in the crucible and alembic, it was subjected to a white heat. 
The apparatus being refrigerated, the residual mass was transfer- 
red to a dry glass phial with a ground stopper. 
A portion of the compound thus obtained and preserved was 
placed upon the parallelopiped of charcoal, which was made to form 
the cathode of two deflagrators of one hundred pairs, each of one 
hundred square inches of zinc surface, co-operating as one series. 
In the next place, the cavity of the bell-glass was filled with 
hydrogen, by the process already described, and the cone of char- 
coal being so connected with the positive end of the series as to 
be prepared to perform the office of an anode, was brought into 
contact with the compound to be deflagrated. ‘These arrange- 
ments being accomplished, and the circuit completed by throw- 
ing the acid upon the plates, the most intense ignition took place. 
The compound proved to be an excellent conductor ; and du- 
ting its deflagration emitted a most beautiful purple light, which 
was too vivid for more than a transient endurance by an eye Ur 
protected by deep-colored glasses. After the compound was ad- 
judged to be sufficiently deflagrated, and time had been allowed 
for refrigeration, on lifting the receiver, minute masses wos 
found upon the coal, which had a metallic appearance, and which, 
when moistened, produced an effluvium, of which the smell is 
like that which had been observed to be generated by the silicu- 
ret of potassium. 
Similar results had been attained by the deflagration ina like 
manner, of a compound procured by passing cyanoge? over 
