Page:Experimental researches in chemistry and.djvu/297

282 in an agate mortar, then placed upon a piece of turmeric paper, and moistened with a drop of pure water, strong indications of free alkali will be obtained. The same effect is produced by using plate glass; and if the pulverization be very perfect, the alkali can be detected in glasses containing far smaller quantities of that substance than either of those mentioned. This experiment, due to Mr. Griffiths, shows that in whatever state of combination the alkali may be, it can still act upon, and is subject to, the action of moisture; and that flint glass is by no means a compound resulting from very strong chemical affinities, is also shown by an experiment which I made many years ago; namely, that if flint glass be pulverized exceedingly fine, the powder will indicate the presence of sulphuretted hydrogen in the air by becoming blackened, almost as readily as carbonate of lead. Glass may be considered rather as a solution of different substances one in another, than as a strong chemical compound; and it owes its power of resisting agents generally to its perfectly compact state, and the existence of an in soluble and unchangeable film of silica, or highly silicated matter upon its surface.

111. The half-combined and hygrometric state of the alkali appears to be the cause of the deposited film of moisture which is well known to adhere to ordinary glass when exposed to the atmosphere at common temperatures. This film is highly calculated to condense any portion of sulphuretted vapours which may be floating in the atmosphere, and thus bring them into contact with the oxide of lead under the most favourable conditions for the production of that action which is the direct cause of tarnish. Now from this cause of action the heavy glass is free; and hence a satisfactory reason to me why the heavy glasses have suffered so little when left with common care in an ordinary atmosphere.

12. An extraordinary difference exists between the electrical relations of this glass and other glasses, due principally to the same absence of alkali. Ordinary glasses, either flint, plate or crown, will, from the hygrometric film of moisture upon the surface, freely conduct electricity under common circumstances. Thus if a gold-leaf electrometer he diverged, and then touched with them in their ordinary state, the electricity is instantly discharged, even though the hand be two or three feet from the part touching the instrument. If a similar experiment be