[97] 



Art. XXIV. On the Compound Blowpipe. Extract from 

 the Journal de Physique, of Paris, for January 1818.* 



CONCERNING HEAT. 



JlIEAT, considered as one of the most important agents, 

 especially in relation to chemistry, and even to mineralogjs 

 has also been the subject of numerous labours, both with regard 

 to the means of augmenting and of diminishing its effects. 



" To the former belong the numerous experiments made, 

 especially in England, with the blowpipe, supplied by a mix- 

 ture of oxygen and hydrogen gases. Mr. Clarke has evidently 

 been more extensively engaged in these researches than any 

 other person, as our readers have perceived in the extracts 

 which we have given from the labours of this learned che- 

 mist ; but it is proper also to give publicity to the protest 

 (reclamation) made to us in favour of Mr. Silliman. 



" We have already stated that Mr. Hare, of Philadelphia, first 

 conceived the idea of forming a blowpipe with explosive gas ; 

 but as we have not been conversant with the memoirs of the 

 Society of Arts and Sciences of Connecticut, we have not made 

 mention of Mr. Silliman. 



*' The fact is, that this chemist, ProfessoratNew-Haven, pub- 

 lished, on the 7th of May ,t 1812, a memoir containing the results 

 of experiments made upon a very great number of bodies, until 

 that time reputed to be infusible ; and, among others, upon 

 the alkaline earths, the decomposition of which he effected. 



" The experiments ofMr. Clarke were therefore subsequent; 

 but, having been made upon a still more extensive list of sub- 

 stances, they are scarcely less interesting. 



" It results theu, from the experiments of Messrs. Hare, 

 Silliman, Clarke, Murray, and Ridolfi, that there is really no 

 substance which is infusible in the degree of heat produced 

 by this .kind of blowpipe. 



" In this new department of physics, it is attempted not only 

 to apply the blowpipe to a very great number of bodies, but 



* Communicated by a friend at Paris. 



f See Transactions of the Connecticut Academy, and Brace's Journal, Vol. I, 

 p. 199. 



Vol. I. ...No. 1. 7 



