Miscellanies. 189 



ratiis known as '* DameZZ'5 sustaining battery,''^ the contrivance of 

 which had done him great honor ; but Dr. Hare conceived that how- 

 ever preferable might be a battery of that kind, in processes requiring 

 a permanent current ; for a transient energetic ignition, such as is 

 most suitable for blasting, the calorimotors which he had contrived, 

 would be decidedly more efficacious. 



Dr. Hare further communicated the results of his recent experi- 

 ments to obtain calcium, as follows : 



By igniting an equivalent weight of lime with an equivalent and a 

 half of crystallized bicyanide of mercury, in two successive experi- 

 ments, residual masses were obtained, which, within a small fraction, 

 had the weight which would have resulted from the union of an 

 equivalent of calcium, with an equivalent of cyanogen. A portion 

 of the compound thus made, was placed between electrodes of char- 

 coal, the lower piece being excavated slightly to receive it, and the 

 upper one being so shaped as to enter the cavity. The electrodes 

 were severally supported by copper rods passing through stuffing 

 boxes, so as to be included within a glass receiver, ground to fit air 

 tight upon an extra aii'-pump plate. In consequence of this arrange- 

 ment, the receiver could be exhausted of air, and the electrodes con- 

 sequently situated in vacuo, or in an atmosphere of hydrogen, as 

 might be deemed preferable. The lower electrode formed the ca- 

 thode, the upper the anode, of two hundred pairs, each comprising 

 one hundred square inches of zinc surface. Under these circum- 

 stances, when the circuit was completed, by throwing the usual charge 

 of acid upon the plates, the most intense ignition ensued. The sup- 

 posed compound of cyanogen appears to be an excellent conductor, 

 and nothing could exceed the splendor of the purple light emitted 

 during its deflagration. It was too vivid, however, for more than a 

 transient endurance by an eye unprotected by deep colored glasses. 

 After the compound was adjudged to be sufficiently deflagrated, and 

 time had been allowed for refrigeration, on lifting the receiver, masses 

 were found upon the coal which had a metallic appearance, and which, 

 when moistened, produced an effluvium, of which the smell was like 

 that which had been observed to be generated under like circumstan- 

 ces, by the siliciuret of potassium. 



Similar results had been attained by the deflagration, in a like man- 

 ner, of a compound procured by passing cyanogen over quicklime, 

 enclosed in a porcelain tube heated to incandescence. 



Phosphuret of calcium, when carefully prepared, and subsequently 

 well heated, was found to be an excellent conductor of the voltaic 

 current, evolved from the apparatus above mentioned. Hence it was 

 thought expedient. to expose it in the circuit of the deflagrator, both 



