Excerpt from The Philosophical Magazine, Vol. 28: Comprehending the Various Branches of Science, the Liberal and Fine Arts, Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce; For June, July, August, and September, 1807 The only substance which I could now conceive capable of furnishing the fixed alkali was the water itself. This water appeared pure by the tests of nitrate of silver and mu riate of barytes; but potash and soda, as is well known, rise in small quantities in rapid distillations; and the New River water, which I made use of, contains animal and ve getable impurities, which itwas easy to conceive might furnish neutral salts capable of being carried over in vivid ebullition. To make the experiment in as refined a form as possible, I procured two hollow cones of pure gold containing about 25 grains of water each they were filled with distilled wa ter, connected by a moistened piece of amianthus which had been used in the former experiments, and exposed to the action of a Voltaic battery of 100 pairs of plates of copper and zinc of six inches square, in which the fluid was a so lution of alum and diluted sulphuric acid. In ten minutes the water in ihe negative tube had gained the power of giving a slight blue tint to litmus paper; and the water in the po sitive tube rendered it red. The process was continued for 14 hours' the acid increased in quantity during the whole time, and the water became at last very sour to the taste. The alkaline properties of the fluid in the other tube, on the contrary, remained stationary, and at the end of the time it did not act upon litmus or turmeric paper more than in the first trial: the eltect was less vivid after it had been strongly heated for a minute; but evaporation and the usual process proved ihat some fixed alkali was present. The acid, as far as its properties were examined, agreed with pure nitrous acid having an excess of nitrous gas. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.