2 % 6 Dr. Priestley’s Experiments and Observations 
in thefe circtimftances. than I perceived the air to dlminifh, and 
at the fame time the infide of the veffel to grow very cloudy,- 
with particles of dew, that covered a! mo ft the whole of it. 
Thefe particles by degrees gathered into drops, and ran down the 
hides of the veflel in all places, except where it was heated by 
the fun-beams ; fo that it then appeared to me very evident, 
that water , with or without fixed air, was the produce of the 
•inflammable air, and the pure air let loofe from the iron in this 
mode of operation ; though afterwards I was taught by Mr. 
Watt to correct this hypothefis, and to account for this reftrlt 
in a different manner. When I had examined the remaining 
air, it .was as inflammable as ever, without containing any 
mixture of fixed air at all. 
When I collected the water which was produced in this ex- 
periment by means of a piece of filtering paper, carefully in- 
troduced to abforb it, I found it to be, as nearly as poftible, of 
the fame weight with that which had been loft by the iron : 
and alfo, in every experiment of this kind, in which 1 attended 
to this circumftance, I found that the quantity of inflammable 
air which had difappeared was about double to That of the de- 
phlogifticated air fet loofe from the iron, foppofing that weight 
to have been reduced into air. Thus at one time I. made a piece 
of this flag imbibe 5I ounce meafures of inflammable air, while 
it loft as much as the weight of about 3 ounce .meafures of de- 
phlogifticated air, and The water collected weighed 2 grains. 
Another time a piece mf dlag , loft 1.5 grains, and the water 
produced was ,1.7 grains.; but perfect accuracy is not to be ex- 
pected. 1 ifhall only mention one more experiment of this 
•kind, in which 6f ounce meafures of inflammable air were 
-reduced to .92 ounce meafure, and the iron had loft 2 grains, 
equal in weight to 3.3 ounce meafures of dephlogifticated air. 
