54 Mr. Davy’s Lecture on some new analytical Researches 
product ; I obtained an elastic fluid which gave much more 
diminution bj detonation with oxygene, than that produced 
from ammonia by electricity. 
I now made the experiment, by heating the entire fusible 
substance, from six grains of potassium which had absorbed 
twelve cubical inches of ammonia, in the iron tube, in the 
manner before described. The heat was gradually raised to 
whiteness, and the gas collected in two portions. The whole 
quantity generated, making the usual corrections for temper- 
ature and pressure, and the portion of hydrogene originally 
in the tube, and the residuum, would have been fourteen cu- 
bical inches and a half at the mean degree of the barometer 
and thermometer. Of these, nearly a cubical inch was am- 
monia and the remainder a gas, of which the portion destruc- 
tible by detonation with oxygene, was to the indestructible 
portion, as 2.7 to 1. 
The lower part of the tube, where the heat had been in- 
tense, was found surrounded with potash in a vitreous form ; 
the upper part contained a considerable quantity of potassium. 
In another similar experiment, made expressly for the pur- 
poses of ascertaining the quantity of potassium recovered, the 
same elastic products were evolved. The tube was suffered 
to cool, the stop-cock being open in contact with mercury, it 
was filled with mercury, and the mercury displaced by water; 
when two cubical inches and three quarters of hydrogene gas 
were generated, which proved that at least two grains and 
a half of potassium had been revived. 
Now, if a calculation be made upon the products in these 
operations, considering them as nitrogene and hydrogene, and 
taking the common standard of temperature and pressure, it 
