59 



and that, after each flash, there was a perceptible subsidence of the 

 foam. This result is precisely what Dr. Hare conceives would en- 

 sue, if the foam arose from an attraction between the water and the 

 stratum of air above, caused by opposite states of electrical excite- 

 ment. In such case, the passage of sparks always necessarily tends 

 to restore the equilibrium between the electrified masses, and conse- 

 quently to lessen their reciprocal attraction. 



Dr. Hare made a verbal communication in relation to his 

 compound blowpipe. He stated that, having, in a letter to the 

 chemical section of the British Association, mentioned the fu- 

 sion of twenty -five ounces of platinum, of which he had already 

 informed the Society, a Mr. Maugham, who is employed at 

 the Adelaide Gallery in London to exhibit the hydro-oxygen 

 microscope, had asserted that the fusion in question had been 

 accomplished by a blowpipe of a kind which he had contrived, 

 and of which one had been bought by Dr. Hare when in Lon- 

 don. 



Dr. Hare said he would not have considered this ridiculous 

 and groundless allegation worthy of notice, had it not been 

 made before the chemical section of the British Association, 

 and had not the individual, by whom it was made, been ho- 

 noured by a British society with a premium for the instrument 

 which he miscalled his blowpipe. This blowpipe differed im- 

 materially from one of which he, Dr. Hare, had published an 

 engraving and description in Silliman's American Journal of 

 Science for 1820, (Vol. II., page 29S, fig. 3;) being a modifi- 

 cation of his blowpipe described in Vol. XIV. of Tilloch's 

 Philosophical Magazine for 1802. 



The only difference between the instruments described and 

 represented in those publications, and that employed by Maug- 

 ham, was that the latter formed near the apex an acute angle, 

 so as to be convenient for directing the flame upon a cylinder 

 of lime for producing the lime-light. 



With a view to show this method of illumination, agreeably 

 to the process in which, a revolving cylinder of lime is em- 

 ployed, Dr. Hare stated that he had purchased one of the 

 crooked blowpipes alluded to; but he had never used it for 

 any purpose, having found his own blowpipe abovementioned 

 preferable, when the jet was directed obliquely upwards. 



