OX Y 
coloured fubftance introduced into it is the leaft damp, it 
ft all coloured 
wa ee 
The ufes of chlorine in the art of a and the pecu- 
liar modes of its Ciera oan already been defcribed, 
(fee BLEACHING.) Va Birmingham, and Mr. 
Henry of Manchefter, are intitled to the merit of having 
firft introduced this new method of bleaching into England, 
It originated with Berthollet. 
Ps the year 1811, fir H. Davy difcovered a gafeous com- 
und of chlorine and oxygen; its colour is more intenfe 
Sian that of chlorine, a a which induced him to 
oc. ‘To obta 
ome oxymuriate of potath thou be introduced into a very 
{mall glafs retort, and a mixture of equal parts of muriatic 
acid and water poured upon it enty grains of the 
hydrogen, is as 33 to 1. 
75 grains. 
When euchlorine is erie to a temperature between 100° 
flame in, and pa eae combine with, chlarine. If copper 
leaf, for inftance, be introduced into pure euchlorine, it is not 
even tarnifhed, but if heat be applied fo as to decompofe the 
gas, the metal is inftantly ignited, and burns as in a mixture 
of two parts of chlorine and one of oxygen. Phofphorus, 
an inflamed taper, and fulphur in a ftate of combuttion, im- 
mediately decompofe saehlbiie, aa exhibit the fame phe- 
1 
nomena as when burned in an artificial mixture of its ele- 
mentary ga 
e above mentioned a and others, fhew that 
euchlorine is eal ofe ne proportion of oxygen = 7.5, 
and one of = 3 ce i“ and confequently its reprefen- 
‘ative fymbol is 
n this article the term chlorine has been preferred to 
hae, of oxymuriatic acid, not merely on account of its bre- 
and propriety, but as founded upon an obvious and un- 
alterable charaGter of the body it reprefents, namely, its 
colour; anda change of nomenclature became abfolutely 
neceffary to the fyfte natic writer; for it would in him be 
abfurd to call a body oxymuriatic acid, which exhibits no 
acid chara&ters, and in which neither o oxygen nor muriatic 
acid have hitherto been demonftrated to exift. B. 
The editor of the Cyclopadia is fully apprized of the im- 
Ox Y 
ments in fcience, aa for his general character, by “upplying 
the defe&ts and correéting the errors whic 8 pointed 
out to him in the ete e BLEACHING. 
 vitable to content himfelf with giving a fair and full ftate- 
ment of Mr. Henry’s claims, and this fhall be done as nearly 
as poffible in the words of his correfpondent, Dr. W. Henry. - 
He begins with alleging, tha. the writer of the art 
mentioned, ‘ in afligning to different perfons their fhares of 
merit, in the introduction of the new mode of bleaching by 
oxymuriatic acid and its compounds, has made a diftribution, 
m being fair or equitable.’ Of the 
part,”’ he fays by Mr, Watt of Birmingham, in 
the application of this moft important Gave, much too 
little is faid ; and of my father’s fhare in 
hich w 
aUUVO 
on 
not the {malleft notice is taken throughout the whole artic jes 
though it was a matter of too much notoriety to have ef. 
eee the knowledge of any perfon in this neighbourhood.” 
“The fa@is, that next to Mr. Watt, who had very early 
Sperone communication with Mr. Berthollet on the fubje@, 
(fee Annales de Chimie, ii. 160.), and who appears to have 
made the farft experiments that were attempted in this coun- 
try, my father was at leaft equally early with any other 
perfon.’’—** It happens, fortunately for the eftablifhment 
of the claim of Mr. Watt and my father, that I am in 
pofleffion of a feries of letters from the former to the 
hae r; pear per nceotoaet in return for fimilar in- 
formation, what cing with a view to the practical 
application of Berthollet?s difcovery. In one of thefe let- 
ters (Feb. 23. 1788) Mr. Watt ftates, that at that very 
time 1500 yards of linen “were bleaching’’ by the new 
procefs ie his directions. 
to “an advertifement cailin 
w 
orter ithout many inconveniences and 
ais to which the old method was liable.’ 
ry further ftates, that the piece of calico, faid, in 
the mee of ee HING, to have been bleached by the new 
procefs in the {pring of 1788, was bleached immediately be- 
fore the meeting to which Mr. Watt alludes in the fore-cited 
letter, and half a piece was produced at the meeting, in order 
cation of the foreigners. 
fays Dr. H., 
bleaching under M 
finifhed; and that, confequently, that diftinguifhed philo- 
fopher had the priority to Mefirs. Cooper, Baker, and Tay- 
lor. But, however this may be, my father, at the fame pub- 
lic meeting where Mr. Cooper fhewed his fpecimen, pro- 
duced, not half a piece, but half a yard, of calice, bleached 
whitenefs ; and its {uperiority led to an acquaintance between 
my father and one of the bleachers prefent, who concurred 
in this opinion, and to the inftru@ion of this gentleman (Mr. 
Ridgway of Harwich) by my father in the new mode o 
leaching. 
Mr. Cooper, it is faid, eftablithed a large bleaching con- 
cern, 
