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being ignited by friction or percussion. It was sweet to the taste, Nut 

 possessed a pungency which in a short time became painful, and at- 

 tacked the skin of the tongue, so as to destroy the power of tasting, 

 and to leave the surface white for several days afterwards. 



Mr. Boye remarked that, when the perchlorate of ethnic was dis- 

 covered, the quantity of permanent gases generated by its explosion, 

 and the extreme force with which it scattered the pieces of the vessel 

 in which it was contained, had suggested to him the idea of employ- 

 ing it as an explosive agent, and he had designed making some expe- 

 riments on this subject, by mixing it with small portions of other sub- 

 stances ; but finding it perfectly unmanageable, he had abandoned the 

 attempt. The fact that the perchlorate of methule is not explosive 

 spontaneously, or by friction or percussion, suggested a similar idea; 

 principally as this substance contains more oxygen than is necessary 

 for its own combustion, and, therefore, would probably permit still 

 better the admixture of other combustible liquids, so as to control its 

 explosive force, and abate it so far as to render it applicable to pur- 

 poses of projection. The advantages of such a liquid over common 

 gunpowder would be, in the first place, that it would yield a much 

 greater amount of gaseous matter ; secondly, being a liquid, the whole 

 mass would explode at once, while in common gunpowder a portion 

 of the grains are thrown out without being ignited; and, thirdly, 

 being entirely convertible into gases, it would leave no solid residue, 

 which is a great inconvenience with ordinary gunpowder. 



Mr. B. further remarked that, in their paper on the perchlorate of 

 ethule, Mr. Clark Hare and himself had expressed the opinion, that, 

 in explosive violence, it was not equalled by any substance known in 

 chemistry ; for, although they had never had occasion to compare it 

 directly with the chloride of nitrogen, there was one point in which 

 it evidently much surpassed that substance; namely, the great dis- 

 tance to which its explosion was perceptible, and the force with which 

 it projected the fragments of the containing vessel. Minute pieces of 

 glass might be seen, where it struck the glass plates of the screen, to 

 have been converted into minute heaps of a compressed powder, pro- 

 truding above the surface of the glass, under which, on removing the 

 powder, a dent appeared. In order to form a more distinct idea of 

 its power, Mr. B. had calculated the volume of gas given off by the 

 perchlorates of ethule and methule, by chloride of nitrogen, and by 

 gunpowder ; from which it appears, that, when the temperature to 

 which the gases are raised by the explosion is assumed to be 1000° 

 centigrade, or 1832 Fahrenheit, which is a little lower than the heat 



