94 Benjamin Thompson’s Experiments 
Thefe experiments appear to me to be of fo much impor- 
tance, that I could wifh they might be repeated, and varied, 
in fuch a manner as thoroughly to eftablifh the fads relative to 
the fubjed in queftion. For my part, I would moft readily 
undertake the inveftigation of the matter ; but being employed 
in another purfuit (the continuation of my Experiments upon 
Heat), and, befides this, much of my time being taken up by 
the duties of my military employment, I have not leifure, at 
•prefen t, for fuch an undertaking. 
Perhaps it may be proved by future experiment, that the 
matter of light is a conftituent part of what is called pure or 
dephlogifticated air; if fo, may we not venture to conclude 
with M. Scheetle, that the light , as well as the heat, pro- 
duced by flame, and in general all burning bodies, arifes folefy 
from the decompofition of this air, and not from the phlo- 
gifton or inflammable principle of the body which is burnt ? 
There are many phenomena which would feem to juftify this 
opinion. 
But to proceed in the account of my experiments. — The 
operation of inverting the globes under water, and placing 
them in the jars, and of displacing and replacing them upon 
removing the air produced, being attended with fome incon- 
veniences, I had recourfe to another method of difpofing of 
the apparatus, much more Ample and more convenient. The 
globes being filled were laid upon a fmall piece of deal board, 
with their necks inclined at an angle of about 20° above the 
plane of the horizon, and fupported in this pofition by a per- 
pendicular fork of wood, fixed to the end of the board, as 
reprefented by the figure. (See Tab. VI.) The part of the board, 
upon which the under part of the globe repofed, was hollowed a 
little, to prevent the globe from rolling ; or, what I found 
more 
