Properties of Wood Ashes. 83 



ably hot ; and the upper half of the ashes retained but little heat. 

 In thirty six hours, the temperature of the ashes being much re- 

 duced, I emptied the box, and found the bottom of it on the in- 

 side near the middle converted to coal, one of the sides conside- 

 rably charred, and another browned by the heat. Coals were 

 found in different parts of the ashes, but I believe they were con- 

 fined to those portions through which the heat did not travel. 



The ashes used in the foregoing and the subsequent experi- 

 ments, were derived from the mixed combustion of hickory, 

 beech, sugar-tree, oak, and a few other kinds of wood ; and the 

 sieve employed consisted of twenty four by thirty two interstices 

 to the square inch. 



To what cause could I attribute the augmentation of heat and 

 its downward course, which the preceding instances exhibit? 

 The plausible answer was, carbon. There, said the spirit of con- 

 jecture, was the fire, burning its way into the ashes, and leaving 

 successive portions of them to cool after it had consumed the 

 combustible matter oat of them ; travelling downward, like the 

 Goth's descent upon Rome, into regions where its fierceness could 

 be fed. There, too, was the gray color of the ashes, produced, 

 said conjecture, by the admixture of fine carbonaceous particles 

 with the pure white cineritious matter. To prove that the proper 

 color of wood ashes is white, there lay the beautiful specimen with 

 gossamer lightness upon the hearth, the residue of the undisturbed 

 combustion of a solitary ember; showing the delicate fibrous struc- 

 ture of the original wood ; with open avenues on every side, and a 

 thousand apertures within for the free admission of atmospheric 

 oxygen to every atom of carbon ; the carbon thus afiianced to oxy- 

 gen had escaped into the air, leaving its white mansion unshaded 

 by its presence. And how could I better account for the various 

 shades of gray which ashes present, than by supposing them to 

 arise from the various proportions of the black powder intermixed? 

 And then, there were the uniform results of repeated trials by fire, 

 in which something escaped out of the contents of the crucible ; 

 and what could this be but carbon ? Such was the language of 

 imagination before experiment had fully uttered its voice. To 

 strengthen these conclusions, I applied myself to other evidences ; 

 but these, to my disappointment, instead of supporting, kicked 

 against my imaginings. 



