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equal to what enters into its composition. These experiments with the taper were several times repeated, so that I have a reason to believe them accurate.


Combustion of Olive Oil

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We included a burning lamp, containing a determinate quantity of olive-oil, in the ordi nary apparatus, and, when the experiment was finished, we ascertained exactly the quantities of oil consumed, and of ice melted; the result was, that, during the combustion of one pound of olive-oil, 148 libs. 14 oz. 1 gros of ice were melted. By my experiments in the Memoirs of the Academy for 1784, and of which the following Chapter contains an abstract, it ap- pears that one pound of olive-oil consists of 12 oz. 5 gros 5 grs. of charcoal, and 3 oz. 2 gros 67 grs. of hydrogen. By foregoing experi ments, that quantity of charcoal should melt 766.18723 libs. of ice, and the quantity of hy- drogen in a pound of oil should melt 62.15053 libs. The sum of these two gives 138.33776 libs. of ice, which the two constituent elements of the oil would have melted, had they separately suffered combustion, whereas the oil really melted 148.88330 libs. which gives an excess of 10.54554 in the result of the experiment