£gO VNEXPECTED PRODUCTION OF AMMONIA. 



destroy the existing electricities by a commvmication be- 

 tween them, 

 and thus the Thus, if the preceding considerations have ab*eady shown 

 electrical siata ^^» *^^^* ^^^^ discharge does not really destroy all electricity 

 are increased in insulating bodies once charged, but merely changes per- 

 ^ ^°* ceptible electricities into quiescent, a result that may appear 



singular, the last reflections that have been made led us to 

 a result still less expected, namely, that the discharge in- 

 creases the number of these electricities by two, to render 

 them all imperceptible. 

 Thf J"o^^ '" Sect. VI. It remains now to inquire, how far these new 

 city acts may ideas of electrical charges and discharges, or of the modifi- 

 be the subject cation assumed by an insulating stratum interposed between 

 quiry. *^^® electricities of opposite kinds, may facilitate our inves- 



tigation of the mode in which electricity acts : but this in- 

 quiry, which demands farther preliminary reflections on: 

 other points of electrical science, may form the subject of 

 future communications. 



VII. 



Account of an Experiment in which Potash calcined with 

 Charcoal took Fire on the Addition of Water, and AtnmO' 

 niacal Gas was produced. In a Letter from J ames Wood- 

 bouse, University of Philadelphia, Sfc. 



To the Editor of the Philosophical Journal. 

 SIR, Philadelphia, Sept. 15th, 1808. 



Soot and pearl. JlILaVING been engaged in the analysis of soot, I ex- 

 ash exposed to pQggjj jjalf a pound of this substance in powdei*, mixed with 

 an intense ^ ^ . , -i i i 



heat. two ounces of pearlash, in a covered crucible, to the intense 



heat of aiLair furnace, for two hours. 

 When cold When the mixture became cold, it was emptied upon 



took fire on a plate, and a small quantity of cold water poured upon 

 the addition ■. ^^^^ -^ immediately caught fire. Expecting there 

 of water, * , . . „ *^ tit i 



N hd ^^* ^ decomposition ot water, 1 placed my nose over the 



but ammonia- mixture, in order to smell the hidrogen gas, which 1 sup- 

 posed 



