37 o 
Mr. Children’s experiments 
interspersed amongst it, and exhaled an odour, similar to that 
of phosphuretted hydrogene. 
Exp. 6. Oxide of molybdena ; readily fused and reduced. 
The metal is very brittle, of a steel grey colour, and soon 
becomes covered with a thin coat of purple oxide. 
Exp. 7. Compound ore of iridium and osmium; fused into 
a globule. 
Exp. 8. Pure iridium ; fused into an imperfect globule, 
not quite free from small cavities, and weighing 7.1 grains. 
The metal is white, very brilliant, and in its present state its 
specific gravity is 18,68, which must be much too low, on 
account of the porous state of the globule. In the minutes 
of the experiments, in July 1813, mention is made of the 
fusion of a small portion of pure iridium into a globule weigh- 
ing - 6 ^q of a grain, which had been previously submitted to 
the action of a battery of 2000 plates, of four inches square., 
without melting. 
Exp. 9. Ruby and sapphire, were not fused. 
Exp. 10. Blue spinel, ran into a slag. 
Exp. 11. Gadolinite, fused into a globule. 
Exp. 12. Magnesia, was agglutinated. 
Exp. 13. Zircon from Norway, was imperfectly fused. 
Exp. 14. Quartz, silex, and plumbago, were not affected. 
In the year 1796, M. CIouet converted iron into steel, by 
cementation with the diamond, with the view of confirm- 
ing the nature of that substance, and of ascertaining the exact 
state in which carbon exists in steel. Clouet had also pre- 
viously formed steel by cementation with carbonate of lime. 
Mr. Mushet repeated this experiment, using instead of the 
