On October 31 he says, ‘When the substance amalgamated with mercury, was distilled in a glass retort, and the contents received over mercury, no air was generated; nor over water till the sublimed substance came in contact with the water, when hydrogen was evolved.’
On November 2 he was still working on potagen.
‘Probably this substance combines with oxygen in two proportions, the red colour owing to this; and it is owing to this that it acts upon plate-glass.’
‘The first oxide a peculiar substance capable of being procured with much difficulty, the second potash.’
In the midst of his discovery the condition of the laboratory made him write in the book ‘some regulations with regard to the state of the laboratory.’
‘1. Everything is to be put in its proper place in the evening, and everything to be arranged for the next day’s operations.
‘2. The fire to be lighted at eight o’clock, and the apparatus for the experiments to be prepared by nine.’
On November 4 he writes, ‘The result of the distillation of as pure a piece (of potagen) as I could obtain seemed to be hydrogene nearly pure.
‘The gas given out from an amalgam of it with mercury likewise hydrogene.’
On November 5 many experiments were made.