the Decomposition of the Earths , &c. 351 
alumine, and soda and zircone, and used iron as the negatively 
electrified metal. In all these cases, during the whole pro- 
cess of electrization, abundance of globules, which swam in 
a state of inflammation on the fused mass, were produced. 
And in the mixture, when cooled, small laminae of metal were 
found of the colour of lead, and less fusible than sodium, 
which adhered to the iron ; they acted violently upon water, 
and produced soda and a white powder, but in quantities too 
small to be minutely examined. 
I endeavoured to procure an alloy of potassium, and the 
bases of the earths, from mixtures of potash, silex, and alu- 
mine, fused by electricity, and acted on by the positive and 
negative surfaces in the same manner as pure potash, in ex- 
periments for the decomposition of that substance ; but I 
obtained no good results. When the earths were in quantities 
equal to one-fourth or one-fifth of the alkali, they rendered it 
so highly non-conducting, that it was not easy to affect it by 
electricity, and when they were in very minute portions, the 
substance produced had the characters of pure potassium. 
I heated small globules of potassium, in contact with silex 
and alumine, in tubes of plate glass filled with the vapour of 
naphtha: the potassium seemed to act at the same time upon the 
glass and the earths, and a grayish opaque mass, not possessed 
of metallic splendour was obtained, which effervesced in water* 
depositing white clouds. Here it was possible that the potash, 
had been converted wholly or partly into protoxide, by its, 
action upon the earths ; but as no globule was obtained, and 
as the plate glass alone might have produced the effect, no 
decided inference of the decomposition of the earths can be.: 
drawndrom the process. 
