TO DAVIES GIDDY, ESQ.
Clifton, Feb. 22, 1799.
Dear Friend,—for I love you too well to call you by a more ceremonious name,—I have delayed writing to you from day to day, expecting that some of our experiments would produce results worthy of communication. Since I received your last very acceptable letter, I have been chiefly employed in pursuing the experiments on Heat, Light, Respiration, &c. Of these experiments I shall give you no account, as you will see them in print. I sent you a copy of my Essays last week; if you have not received them, I trust you will find them at my mother's, or at Mr. Tonkin's.
In the same parcel were two small packets, one from Mrs. Beddoes for your father, the other for Miss Giddy from Mrs. Willoughby. About a fortnight ago I sent a few chemical instruments to Mr. Penneck of Penzance; and inclosed with them were specimens of the different varieties of sulphate of strontian addressed to you. If you have not received them, you will get them by sending to Mr. Penneck.
On looking over a box of minerals last week, which was sent to Dr. Beddoes from Cumberland, I found two very fine specimens of sulphate of strontian, marked by the collector Laminated Shorl. I suspect this mineral is not scarce in calcareous countries; it is, I dare say, often mistaken for sulphate of barytes.
I have succeeded in combining strontian with the oxygenated muriatic acid. This salt possesses most astonishing properties;[24] you will find an account of them in my Essay.
When you have perused my papers, I shall be very much obliged to you for a criticism upon them. When I left Penzance, I was quite an infant in speculation,—I knew very little of Light or Heat. I am now as much convinced of the non-existence of caloric, as I am of the existence of light. Independent of the experiments which appear to demonstrate its non-existence directly, and of which you will find an account in my Essay, the consideration of certain phenomena leads me to suppose that there would be no difficulty in proving its non-existence by reasoning. These considerations have occurred to me since the publication of the work. I could now render it much more perfect; but I hope soon to complete the investigation of the combinations of Light, and to produce a much more perfect work on the subject. I shall be infinitely obliged to you for any hints or observations, as far as the detection of errors of any kind, for it is no flattery to say that I pay greater deference to your opinion than to that of any other philosopher.
We intend next week to endeavour to ascertain, by the aid of a delicate balance, the quantities of Light liberated in different combustive processes. That there is a deficiency of weight, I am convinced from many experiments.
The experiments on Light, &c. have prevented me from attempting the decomposition of the undecompounded acids. We have ordered an apparatus at the glass-house for this purpose, and I hope next week we shall be able to carry on the investigation. Two modes of effecting these decompositions have occurred to me:—first, to bring phosphorus or sulphur, in the gaseous state, in contact with the acid gases in a tube heated intensely; secondly, to send sulphur in the gaseous state through muriate of copper or lead, heated white. The attraction of sulphur for oxygen, of copper for oxygen, and of sulphur for copper, will probably effect the decomposition.
Our laboratory in the Pneumatic Institution is nearly finished, and we shall begin the investigations in about a fortnight. We shall begin by trying the gases in their simplest mode of application, and gradually carry on the more complex processes.