36 REPORT— 1839. 



Some Observations on the preparations of Barium and Strontium. 

 By Dr. Hare, in a Letter to J. F. W. Johnston, Esq. 



" Philadelphia, July 4, 1839. 



" By means of the alternate action of two deflagrators, each of 100 

 pairs, containing more than 100 square inches of zinc surface, assisted 

 by refrigeration*, I procured amalgams of barium, strontium, and cal- 

 cium from their chloride ; and by distillation in an iron crucible, in- 

 cluded in an air-tight alembic of the same metal, have extricated the 

 metals above mentioned from their mercurial solvent. 



" They are so oxidizable, that in order to see their brilliant white 

 metallic colour the eye must follow close upon the track of the file or 

 the burnisher. Almost as soon as a fresh surface is exposed, it assumes 

 a straw colour, like that of iron in the first stage of oxidizement, and 

 is soon completely obscured by the generated oxide. In this way 

 barium and strontium are more ready to oxidize than calcium, although 

 the amalgam of this last-mentioned metal changes much more rapidly 

 in the air. The amalgams of the former metals are more like that of 

 potassium. 



" Either metal is rapidly oxidized in water, or in any liquid contain- 

 ing it, and gives afterwards, with tests, the appropriate indication of 

 its presence. They all sink in sulphuric acid. They are all brittle, 

 and fixed, and for fusion require a good red heat. 



" Of several kinds of naphtha in my possession, only one, which I 

 have distilled from a residue of the distillation of potassiumf, does not 

 act upon the metals above mentioned. After being for some time in 

 naphtha, their effervescence with water is much less active. Under 

 such circumstances they re-act, at first more vivaciously with hydric 

 ether than with water or chlorohydric acid, because the ether removes 

 a resinous coating derived from the naphtha." 



On a small Voltaic Battery of extraordinary energy. 

 By W. R. Grove, Esq., M.A. 

 The author, referring to a communication in the Philosophical Ma- 

 gazine for February 1839, described the preliminary investigations 

 which finally conducted him to the construction of a new battery of 

 unusual power, though of very small dimensions. On the 15th of 

 April, 1839, M. Becquerel presented to the French Academy a small 

 battery constructed by the author, consisting of seven liqueur glasses 

 amalgamated, containing the bowls of common tobacco-pipes, the 



* The metals were extricated from saturated solutions of their chlorides. The 

 chemical affinity between the radicals and the oxygen or chlorine in the solution being 

 the opponent of the voltaic action, and this affinity being exalted by heat while the 

 conducting power, and of course susceptibility of decomposition is lessened by the 

 same cause, render resort to a freezing mixture expedient. 



t I mean the residue of the receiver, which, agreeably to my process, is an iron 

 tube. See the forthcoming volume of the American Philosophical Society. 



