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Show -t 24 ] Or mark with fhining l~tters KuNKEL's name In the pale Phofphor' s felf-confuming flame. So the chafie heart of fome enchanted Maid Shines with in:G.duous light, by Love betray' d; Round her pale bofom plays the young De:lire, And ilow !he wafies by felf.confutning fire. 3· " You taught myfierious BAcoN to explore Metallic veins; and part the drofs from ore ; With fylvan coal in whirling 1nills combine The chryfial' d nitre, and the fulphurous n1ine ; Through wiry nets the black diffuG.on :fl:rain, And clofe an airy ocean in a grain.- 235 tides of iron, which have been fufed, and imperfectly fcorified or vitrified. They are kindled by the heat produced by the collifion; but their vivid light, and their fufion and vitrification are the effects of a combufiion continued in thcfc particles during their paffage through the air. This opinion is confirmed by an experiment of Mr. I-hwkilice, who found that thefe fparks could not be produced in the exhaufied receiver. Sec Keir's Chemical Diet. art. Iron, and art. Earth vitrifiable. The pale Phojphor. l. 232. See arlditional notes, No. X. And cloje an airy ocean. l. '242. Gunpowder is plainly defcribed in the works of Roger Bacon before the year 1267. He defcribes it in a curious manner, mentioning [ 25 ] Pent in dark chatnbers of cylindric brafs, Slumbers in grim repofe the footy 1nafs ; Lit by the brilliant fpark, from grain to grain ~45 Runs the quick fire along the kindling train; On the pain' d ear-drum burfis the fuddcn crafh, Starts the red fla1ne, and Death purfues the flafh.- the fu1phur and nitre, but conceals the charcoal in an anagram. The words are, fed tamen falis petrx lure 11wpe can ubrt, et fulphuris, et fie facies tonitrum, et corrufcationcm, {j fcias, artificium. The words lu~e mope can ubrc arc an anagram of car- bonum pulvere. Biograph. Britan. Vol. I. Bacon de Secretis Operibus, Cap. XI. He adds, that he thinks by an artifice of this kind Gideon defeated the Midianites with only three hundred men. Judges, Chap. VI I. Cham b. Diet. art. Gunpowder. As Bacon does not claim this as his own invention, it is thought by m:my to have been of much more antient difcovery. The permanently ebfiic fluid generated in the firing of gunpowder is calculated by Mr. Robins to be about 244 if the bulk of the powder be I. And that the heat generated at the time of the explofion occafions the rarefied air thus produced to occupy about xooo times the fpace of the gunpowder. This pre!Ture may therefore be callecl equal to rooo atmofpheres or fix tons upon a fquare inch. As the fuddennefs of thi5 explofion mufi contribute much to its power, it would feem that the chamber of powder, to produce its greatefi effect, fhould be lighted in the centre of it; which I believe is not attended to in the manufacture of mulkets or piflols. From the cheapnefs with which a very powerful gunpowder is likely foon to be manufactured from aerated marine acid, or from a new m ~thod of forming nitrous acid by means of mangancfe or other c:dciform ores, it may prob:~bly in time be applied to move machinery, and fuperfede the ufe of fieam. There is a bitter invlcrive in Don ~1ixotcagainfi the inventors of gunpowder, as it levels the firong with the weak, the knight cafed i:1 Heel with the naked fh epherd, thofe who have been trained to the [word, with thofe who are totally unfkilful in the ufe of it; and throws down all the fplcndid JiflinB:ions of maakind. Thefe very rea-. fons ought to have Leen urged to fhew, that the dilcovery uf gunpowder has been ot public uti! ity by weakf11i ng the t yr:~nny of the few over tl&e many· PAln ;:. E |
