Page:Experimental researches in chemistry and.djvu/284

1829.] and state of that in the tray; but during its examination, the experimenter must carefully refrain from touching it; for if the finger, or any other organic substance, come into contact with it, the next time the instrument is immersed in the ignited glass, the part touched will produce bubbles. It is therefore of importance that the stirrer be preserved perfectly clean from one stirring to another, for which purpose it may be deposited so that the platinum shall be received in an evaporating basin, the mouth of which is afterwards covered over.

80. In entering upon the considerations relative to the bubbles, it will be evident, from the nature of the materials and the quantity of elastic matter originally present, that these air cavities are at first very numerous. The larger ones soon ascend to the surface, and, breaking, are dissipated without inconvenience; but the smaller ones rise with far less readiness, and the smallest have so little power of elevation, that the general currents in the liquid appear sufficient to carry them downwards, or in any other direction, and thus retain them for any period within the mass. A useful idea of the length of time required for very minute bubbles to ascend through a Huid having some tenacity, may be gained by the person who will take a glassful of clear concentrated white sugar syrup, and beat it up with a little air, until a portion of the latter is in extremely minute bubbles. If these are allowed to remain undisturbed, it will be observed, that though the larger bubbles rise quickly, and the smaller soon after, the smallest will continue for many hours under the surface, destroying the pellucidness of the fluid; and this will be the case although there are none of those descending currents, resulting from difference of temperature, which in the glass assist in retaining the bubbles beneath the surface.

81. From the great length of time which it required to liberate the bubbles even from small pieces of glass, and when no stirring was practised, I was induced to conclude that the evolution of gaseous or vaporous matter had not ceased upon the first fusion of the materials, but that the glass itself when highly heated continued to evolve small portions for some time. It occurred to me also, that in that case its formation might be hastened and the final separation advanced by mixing some extraneous and insoluble substance with the glass, to act as a nucleus, just as pieces of wood, or paper, or grains of sand