"You saw me bring on board with the car several
cases or receptacles, the use of which you may not have
understood. They are five in number.
"The first contains about twenty-five gallons of water,
to which I add a few drops of sulphuric acid, so as to
augment its capacity as a conductor of electricity, and then I
decompose it by means of a powerful Buntzen battery.
Water, as you know, consists of two parts of hydrogen to
one of oxygen gas.
"The latter, through the action of the battery, passes
at its positive pole into the second receptacle. A third
receptacle, placed above the second one, and of double its
capacity, receives the hydrogen passing into it by the
negative pole.
"Stopcocks, of which one has an orifice twice the size
of the other, communicate between these receptacles and
a fourth one, which is called the mixture reservoir, since in
it the two gases obtained by the decomposition of the
water do really commingle. The capacity of this fourth
tank is about forty-one cubic feet.
"On the upper part of this tank is a platinum tube
provided with a stopcock.
"You will now readily understand, gentlemen, the apparatus
that I have described to you is really a gas cylinder
and blow-pipe for oxygen and hydrogen, the heat of
which exceeds that of a forge fire.
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