£06* Electrochemical Researches on 



This result having taken place, the same plan of operation 

 was not pursued with respect to alumine, which resembles a 

 saline compound less than silex, and the method which I 

 now adopted of acting upon these bodies, was on the sup- 

 position of their being inflammable substances so highly 

 saturated with oxygen as to possess little or no positive elec- 

 tricity. 



Alumine and silex have both a strong affinity for potash 

 and soda: now supposing them to be oxides, it was reason- 

 able to conclude that the oxygen, both in the alkalis and 

 the earths, must be passive as to this power, which must 

 consequently be referred to their bases, and on this notion 

 it was possible that it might be made to assist their decom- 

 position by electricity. 



After this reasoning, I fused a mixture of one part of si- 

 lex, and six of potash in a platina crucible, and preserved 

 the mixture fluid, and in ignition, over a fire of charcoal; 

 the crucible was rendered positive from the battery of five 

 hundred, and a rod of platina, rendered negative, was brought 

 in contact with the alkaline menstruum. At the moment 

 of contact there was a most intense light ; when the rod was 

 plunged into the liquid an effervescence took place, and 

 globules which burnt with a brilliant flame rose to the sur- 

 face, and swam upon it in a state of combustion. In a few 

 minutes, when the mixture was cool, the platina bar was 

 removed : after as much as possible of the alkali and silex 

 had been detached from it by a knife, there remained bril- 

 liant metallic scales round it, which instantly became cover- 

 ed with a white crust in the air, and some of which in- 

 flamed spontaneously. The platina appeared much cor- 

 roded, and of a darker tint than belongs to the pure metal. 

 When it was plunged into water it strongly effervesced t.the 

 fluid that came from it was alkaline ; when a few drops of 

 muriatic acid were added to the solution, a white cloudi* 



purest boracic acid which can be obtained from borax by chemical decompo- 

 sition, by electrical analysis is shown to contain both, soda, and the decom- 

 posing acid employed in the process ; and hence the experiment on the action 

 of the boracic acid and potassium, page 201, may possibly be explained 

 wufcout asiumio,{j its decomposition. 



ness 



