2 1 4 Electrochemical Researches on * 



may be preserved for a considerable time in closed glass 

 tubes, a little hydrogen being the only product evolved from 

 them. 



I heated a triple amalgam obtained from ammonia by 

 potassium, and which had been wiped by bibulous paper in 

 a dry plate-glass tube over mercury ; a considerable eleva- 

 tion of temperature was required before any gaseous mat- 

 ter was emitted, but the heat was raised till gas was rapid- 

 ly formed, and the whole of the amalgam expelled from the 

 tube : in cooling, the mercury rose very quickly in it, so 

 that a great part of the gaseous matter had been either mer- 

 cury or water, in vapour, or something which the mer- 

 cury had absorbed in cooling. The small quantity which 

 was permanent, did not equal one half the volume of the 

 amalgam. 



On the idea that this gas might be a compound of hydro- 

 gen and nitrogen in the state of deoxygenation, I mixed a 

 small quantity of oxygen gas with it, but no change of vo- 

 lume took place : I then exposed it to naphtha, when one 

 half of it was absorbed, which by the effect the naphtha 

 produced upon turmeric must have been ammonia ; the re- 

 maining gas analysed was found to consist of the oxygen that 

 had been introduced, and of hydrogen and nitrogen to each 

 other in the proportion of nearly four to one, 



At first I was perplexed by this result, which seemed to 

 prove ttie production of ammonia, independent of the pre* 

 sence of any substance which could furnish oxygen to it, 

 and to show that its amalgamation was merely owing to its 

 being freed from water, and combined with hydrogen : but 

 a satisfactory solution of the difficult v soon offered itself. 

 Exposing the triple amalgam procured from ammonia by 

 potassium to a concentrated solution of ammonia, I found 

 that it had very little action upon it, and introducing the 

 amalgam moistened by it into a glass tube, it had nearly the. 

 same permanency as the amalgam which had been wiped 

 before it was introduced, a little hydrogen only being evolved ; 

 but on heating the tube gaseous matter was rapidly gene- 

 rated, which proved to consist of two-thirds ammonia, and 

 one-third hydrogen. 



