"It results then, from the experiments of Messrs. Hare, Silliman,
Clarke, Murray, and Ridolfi, that there is really no substance
which is infusible in the degree of heat produced by this kind of
blowpipe.
"In this new department of physics, it is attempted not only to
apply the blowpipe to a very great number of bodies, but so to
modify the instrument or apparatus as to give it the highest degree
of convenience, and especially to obviate the danger of explosion."
pp. 38 & 39.
REMARKS.
As the results produced by Mr. Hare's Compound Blowpipe, fed by
oxygen and hydrogen gases, continue to be mentioned in Europe,
in many of the Journals, without any reference to the results
long since obtained in this country, we republish the following
statement of facts, which was, in substance, first published in
New-York, more than a year since. It should be observed, that
Mr. Tilloch has since published, in the Philosophical Magazine
in London, the memoir which contained the American results, and
there have been some other allusions to it in different European
Journals, and to Mr. Hare's previous experiments; but still this
interesting class of results continue to be attributed to others
than their original discoverers.
_Yale College, April 7, 1817._
Various notices, more or less complete, chiefly copied from English
newspapers, are now going the round of the public prints in this
country, stating that "_a new kind of fire_" has been discovered
in England, or, at least, new and heretofore unparalleled means
of exciting heat, by which the gems, and all the most refractory
substances in nature, are immediately melted, and even in various
instances dissipated in vapour, or decomposed into their elements.
The first glance at these statements, (which, as regards the
effects, I have no doubt are substantially true,) was sufficient
to satisfy me, that the basis of these discoveries was laid by
an American discovery, made by Mr. Robert Hare of Philadelphia,
in 1801. In December of that year, Mr. Hare communicated to the
Chemical Society of Philadelphia his discovery of a method of
burning oxygen and hydrogen gases in a united stream, so as to
produce a very intense heat.
In 1802, he published a detailed memoir on the subject, with
an engraving of his apparatus, and he recited the effects of
his instrument; some of which, in the degree of heat produced,
surpassed any thing before known.
In 1802, and 1803, I was occupied with him, in Philadelphia, in
prosecuting similar experiments on a more extended scale; and a
communication on the subject was made to the Philosophical Society
of Philadelphia. The memoir is printed in their transactions;
and Mr. Hare's original memoir was reprinted in the Annals of
Chemistry, in Paris, and in the Philosophical Magazine, in London.
Mr. Murray, in his System of Chemistry, has mentioned Mr. Hare's
results in the fusion of several of the earths, &c. and has given
him credit for his discovery.
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