ind the flame very hot, but having scarcely
any brightness. I should like you to see the curious qualities of
hydrogen, particularly how light it is, so as to carry things up in
the air; and I wish I had a small balloon to fill with it, and make go
up to the ceiling, or a bag-pipe full of it to blow soap-bubbles with,
and show how much faster they rise than common ones, blown with the
breath."

"So do I," interposed Master Tom.

"And so," resumed Harry, "hydrogen, you know, uncle, is part of water,
and just one-ninth part."

"As hydrogen is to water, so is a tailor to an ordinary individual,
eh?" Mr. Bagges remarked.

"Well, now then, uncle, if hydrogen is the tailor's part of the
water, what are the other eight parts? The iron turnings used to make
hydrogen in the gun-barrel, and rusted, take just those eight parts
from the water in the shape of steam, and are so much the heavier.
Burn iron turnings in the air, and they make the same rust, and gain
just the same in weight. So the other eight parts must be found in the
air for one thing, and in the rusted iron turnings for another, and
they must also be in the water; and now the question is, how to get at
them?"

"Out of the water? Fish for them, I should say," suggested Mr. Bagges.

"Why, so we can," said Harry. "Only, instead of hooks and lines, we
must use wires--two wires, one from one end, the other from the other,
of a galvanic battery. Put the points of these wires into water, a
little distance apart, and they instantly take the water to pieces.
If they are of copper, or a metal that will rust easily, one of them
begins to rust, and air-bubbles come up from the other. These bubbles
are hydrogen. The other part of the water mixes with the end of the
wire and makes rust. But if the wires are of gold, or a metal that
does not rust easily, air-bubbles rise from the ends of both wires.
Collect the bubbles from both wires in a tube, and fire them, and they
turn to water again; and this water is exactly the same weight as the
quantity that has been changed into the two gases. Now then, uncle,
what should you think water was composed of?"

"Eh? well--I suppose of those very identical two gases, young
gentleman."

"Right, uncle. Recollect that the gas from one of the wires was
hydrogen, the one-ninth of water. What should you guess the gas from
the other wire to be?"

"Stop--eh?--wait a bit--eh?--oh! why, the other eight-ninths, to be
sure."

"Good again, u