DEFLAGRATING CARBURETS, PHOSPHURETS, OR CYANIDES. 55 



blow-pipe, or voltaic ignition, without being enabled to remove the darkness 

 which hides the mysteries of nature from our intellectual vision. 



I hope, nevertheless, that some of the results attained may not be unworthy 

 of attention; and that, as a new mode of employing the voltaic circuit, my ap- 

 paratus and mode of manipulation will be interesting to chemists. 



An equivalent of quicklime, made with great care from pure crystallized 

 spar, was well mingled, by trituration, with an equivalent and a half of bicya- 

 nide of mercury, and was then enclosed within a covered porcelain crucible. 

 The crucible was included within an iron alembic, such as has been described 

 by me, in this volume, as employed for the isolation of metallic radicals. (See 

 page 38.) 



The whole was exposed to heat approaching to redness. In two experi- 

 ments the residual mass had such a weight as would result from the union of 

 an equivalent of cyanogen with an equivalent of calcium. 



A similar mixture being made, and, in like manner, enclosed in the crucible 

 and alembic, it was subjected to a white heat. The apparatus being refrige- 

 rated, the residual mass was transferred to a dry glass phial with a ground 

 stopper. 



A portion of the compound thus obtained and preserved was placed upon the 

 parallelepiped of charcoal, which was made to form the cathode of two defla- 

 grators of one hundred pairs, each of one hundred square inches of zinc sur- 

 face, co-operating as one series. 



In the next place, the cavity of the bell-glass was filled with hydrogen, by 

 the process already described, and the cone of charcoal being so connected with 

 the positive end of the series as to be prepared to perform the office of an anode, 

 was brought into contact with the compound to be deflagrated. These arrange- 

 ments being accomplished, and the circuit completed by throwing the acid upon 

 the plates, the most intense ignition took place. 



The compound proved to be an excellent conductor ; and during its deflagra- 

 tion emitted a most beautiful purple light, which was too vivid for more than 

 a transient endurance by an eye unprotected by deep-coloured glasses. After 

 the compound was adjudged to be sufficiently deflagrated, and time had been 

 allowed for refrigeration, on lifting the receiver minute masses were found 

 upon the coal, which had a metallic appearance, and which, when moistened, 



