118 Scientific Intelligence. 
14. Incineration of Filters.—The great difficulty with which in many 
eases, the last portions of the carbon of a filter are consumed when igak 
t does p 
appear, however, that the following simple method of obviating the diffi- 
ulty—as practised in the laboratory of Prof. Scheerer in Freiberg—has — 
ever received the publicity which it deserves, ede 
Vhenever a filter upon which a substance capable of injuring platinum — 
ible or eaps 
H,, an 
carbide of hydrogen. It is evidently the prototype of a series of yy dro 
carbons, the general formula of which is ethicies i 
Berthelot, acetylene is formed whenever olefiant gas, or the vapo 
hol, ether, aldehyd, or of wood-spirit is. passed through a red hot tube 
This explosive compound has also been described Quet, (Comptes 
decomposing 
1858, xlvi, 905), who obtained it when the gas prepared by 2. x 
ries of electric sparks was tr with an ammoni solution of dichlorid 
copper. It was observed in 1839,—long before the the 
above mentioned, by Prof. Torrey of New York, on the oceasion of its occurrence ® 
the copper service pipes at that time in use for distributing gas ( 
Gas-Dight Journal, Oct. 1859; Répertoire de Chi ppliquée, i, 493 
Bettger’s Notizblatt, 1860, xv, 117), (note 
