With this apparatus I combined the usual means indicated by former experiments for the production of very high vacua. In most of the experiments it was convenient to use caustic potash. I may venture to say, in regard to its use, that much time is saved and a more perfect action of the pump insured by fusing and boiling the potash as soon as, or even before, the pump settles down. If this course is not followed the sticks, as ordinarily employed, may give moisture off at a certain very slow rate, and the pump may work for many hours without reaching a very high vacuum. The potash was heated either by a spirit lamp or by passing a discharge through it, or by passing a current through a wire contained in it. The advantage in the latter case was that the heating could be more rapidly repeated. Generally the process of exhaustion was the following:--At the start, the stop-cocks C and C_1 being open, and all other connections closed, the reservoir R_2 was raised so far that the mercury filled the reservoir R_1 and a part of the narrow connecting U-shaped tube. When the pump was set to work, the mercury would, of course, quickly rise in the tube, and reservoir R_2 was lowered, the experimenter keeping the mercury at about the same level. The reservoir R_2 was balanced by a long spring which facilitated the operation, and the friction of the parts was generally sufficient to keep it almost in any position. When the Sprengel pump had done its work, the reservoir R_2 was further lowered and the mercury descended in R_1 and filled R_2, whereupon stopcock C_2 was closed. The air adhering to the walls of R_1 and that absorbed by the mercury was carried off, and to free the mercury of all air the reservoir R_2 was for a long time worked up and down. During this process some air, which would gather below stopcock C_2, was expelled from R_2 by lowering it far enough and opening the stopcock, closing the latter again before raising the reservoir. When all the air had been expelled from the mercury, and no air would gather in R_2 when it was lowered, the caustic potash was resorted to. The reservoir R_2 was now again raised until the mercury in R_1 stood above stopcock C_1. The caustic potash was fused and boiled, and the moisture partly carried off by the pump and partly re-absorbed; and this process of heating and cooling was repeated many times, and each time, upon the moisture being absorbed or carried off, the reservoir R_2 was for a long time raised and lowered. In this manner all the moisture was carried off from the mercury, and both the reservoirs were in proper condition to be used. The reservoir R_2 was then again raised to the top, and the pump was kept working for a long time. When the highest vacuum obtainable with the pump had been reached the potash bulb was usually wrapped with cotton which was sprinkled with ether so as to keep the potash at a very low temperature, then the reservoir R_2 was lowered, and upon reservoir R_1 being emptied the