ss 
264 Dr. Prieftley on Phlogifton—Remarks on the Word Tyde. [May. 
air and. phlogifton, or the bafe of inflam- 
mable air. I had this refult when I cal- 
cined iron, zinc, tin, lead, bifmuth, and 
egulus of antimony, in thofe circum- 
fiances. But when the procefs was made 
over mercury, I could not always find 
any, and therefore prefume that all the 
“oxygen was imbibed by the calx, though 
it may be impoffible, in fome cafes, to ex- 
tract it again in that form. For, when 
the quantity is fmall, it may be fo united 
to the phlogifton remaining in the calx, as 
to form thebafis of phlogifticated air,which 
I have proved to confit of dephlogifticated 
and inflammable air. 4 
Lead furnifhes an example of this. No 
oxygen can, I believe, by any means be 
got from maficet, though it has imbi- 
bed fome; but when this calx is fuper- 
faturated with it, and becomes mixium, 
3t will yield the pureft dephlogifticated air 
by heat only, and will likewife dephlogif- 
ticate marine acid; and fince flowers of 
zine will not dephlogifticate marine acid, 
I prefume that this calx alfo is nearly in 
the fame fate with mafficot in this refpect, 
and that in any ftate it contains but little 
oxygen, or fo united to phlogifton, as 
not to be obtained either in the form of 
acid, or of dephlogifticated air. 
- Though the fowers of zinc may coh- 
tain fome oxygen, I have not been able to 
difcover any in them, by any procefs that 
i have made ufe of for the purpofe. 
this fubftance 1s made in a confiderable 
decree of heat, I was not furprifed to find 
that heat would not expel any thing from 
at; but I thought that when it was mixed 
with iron filings, it might with them give. 
fome fixed air, as red precipitate does. 
But this I found not to be the cafe—I got 
mothing ia this procefs befides inflamma- 
‘ble air, as I fhould have done with finery 
cinder: Alfo when mixed with perfectly 
made charcoal, fuch as gives no air by 
_heat, a great quantity of both fixed and 
Ainflammable air is produced 3 which thews 
that, like this fubfance, flowers of zinc 
centain little or nothing befhdes avater, 
which wil] have juft the fame effect. . 
To make this experiment with fairnefs, 
the iron filings muyii be heated till they 
give no air, They muft then be well 
wafhed till the water put on them be quite 
clear, and they be again found to give 
no fixed air by heat. For foreign fub- 
itances are very apt to be mixed with iron” 
filings, which this procefs will feparate. 
With iron filings thus prepared, red pre- 
cipitate gave fixed air; but flowers of 
zinc none at all. 
There is a grey calc of sinc, fimilar to 
that of lead» which Mr. Chaptal calls a 
Pos: | 
perfe&t oxide. This I found to be only 
zinc partially calcined, for,“in Heating it 
in atmofpherical air, it became white. The 
air was diminifhed, was without fixed air, 
and confiderably phlogifticated. ‘The per- 
fect flowers of zinc treated in the fame 
manner made no fenfible change in the 
quantity of air. But, as in the former 
cafe, there was no fixed air in it, and it 
was confiderably phlogifticated.- 
The melting of mafficot in thefe cir- 
cumftances made no change of any kind 
in the air, which fhews that it contains 
lefs phlogifton than flowers of zinc. 
Oxygen in a calx is perhaps moft eafily 
deteéted by its forming fixed air, when it 
is heated in inflammable air. But FE did 
not find this to be the refult of an attempt 
to revive flowers of zine in thofe circum- 
ftances. Owing to the whitenels of this — 
fubftance, which difpofes it to refleét, and 
not to abforb, the light that is thrown 
upon it, I could not revive any part of 
this calx completely. A black {pot only 
was made in a part of it, and about an 
ounce meafure of the inflammable air was 
imbibed ; but I found no fixed air in 
what remained, any more than I did 
when I revived finery cinder in that 
procels. 
(The continuation of thefe interefiing papers 
foall appear in our fucceeding Number.) 
Sei ons 
The following Paper on a curious Etymolo- 
' gical Subjeé has been tranfmitted to us 
by Dr. Beppors, to whom it bad beer 
commuzicated by an intelligent Friend. 
_g For tbe Monthly Magazine. a 
Ue alte fome reafons for believing 
L + ime is originally the word tyde, ufed 
at prefent to denote the rife and fallof the 
fea—I with them to be fubmitted to the 
curious in language. im 
I am aware of the illufions of fancy, to 
which the ftudent of words is perpetually 
liable;-—but as [ defire nothing more than 
<¢ to difabufe myfelf from errer,”’ on all 
occafions,-my reafons, I hope, will be 
thoroughly examined;—for in what I now, 
offer, the hiftorian of mankind feems to, 
have a concern ;»for an art or contrivance 
is attempted to be demonftrated as having 
an exiftence prior to the remoteft antiquity 
which tradition can inform us of—1 mean 
the ule of the ¢y¢e, to reckon the progrefs 
of the common affairs of life among north 
érn nations. a pai 
The word iyde is ufed with a little 
variation at prefent in the north of our 
ifland— " 
Vide, Grofe’s Gloflary, —-words uae 
; an 
