260 Reminiscences of the late Mr. Whatney. 
no record was ever made of them, and it is but too probable that 
the instruments are lost. 
Ihave mentioned these facts, connected with Mr. Whitney’s last 
illness, merely as instances of his never-sleeping ingenuity and men- 
tal acuteness, rendered still more active, without being enfeebled, by 
intense suffering. 
Ihave seen the same traits manifested on occasions, far less impor- 
tant, but to him, at the time, equally novel. In the summer of 1808, 
application was made by myself and others to Mr. Whitney for tubes 
of block tin, for the purpose of drawing, through an innocent metal, 
the soda water* highly charged with carbonic acid gas. Lead and 
copper tubes were rejected, on account of their poisonous properties, 
and there were then no facilities in this country for constructing the 
tubes that were desired. Mr. Whitney accomplished the object, with 
his usual precision. The tubes were required to be many feet long, 
and strong enough to resist a heavy pressure. He caused a mould to 
be constructed of cast brass. it was in two parts, each containing, for 
about two feet in length, one half of the cylindrical cavity, comes 
ponding to the desired tube ; when the parts of the mould were ac 
curately fitted, by their faces, and screwed together, they contained 
the entire cylindrical cavity between them, and to secure the duct 
through the tube, a polished steel rod, of the proper size and made 
very slightly tapering, was fixed in the centre and the melted metal 
was cast around it; the rod, being terminated by a ring, was ea 
knocked out. The separate parts of the tube, thus produced, were 
then joined into one, by having the contiguous ends of two of them 
brought, longitudinally, into contact, and in¢luded in anodher moult 
containing an enlarged cavity, into which melted tin was pourees 
the duct was preserved by a steel rod passing through it, as before, 
and thus the joint was perfected by a knob of metal, which at one? 
united the two tubes into one, gave them great additional strength 
and furnished a beautiful ornament. Nothing could b 
fect, for the object. The moulds are still in existence, 
necessary, tubes could be thus made a mile long. Mr. 3 
not state that this method was original, nor do I certainly know whether 
it was, but I have never heard of a similar method of casting block u" 
Ts 5 
* Then just beginning to be known in this country: 
