342 IMPROVED PROCESS FOR OBTAINING POTASSIUM. 



end thus exposed by a cap, in which a suitable conical female screw is 

 wrought. 



The part of the tube containing the potassium is then made in a 

 vertical position to occupy the axis of a cylindrical furnace, the end 

 terminating, as above mentioned, in a tapering plug, being lowermost, 

 and projecting below the bottom of the furnace. Before the tempera- 

 ture reaches redness, globules of the metal begin to descend ; but to 

 extricate the last portion, a white heat is requisite. The potassium 

 may be received in bottles, kept full of hydrogen by a constant cur- 

 rent, or in naphtha. The first portion, which descends before the 

 temperature is high, can be more easily received without naphtha than 

 the latter portion. 



