To Produce Fire By The Mixture Of Two Cold Liquids
Take half a pound of pure dry nitrate, in powder; put it into a retort
that is quite dry; add an equal quantity of highly rectified oil of
vitriol, and, distilling the mixture in a moderate sand heat, it will
produce a liquor like a yellowish fume; this, when caught in a dry
receiver, is Glauber's Spirits of Nitre; probably the preparation,
under that name, may be obtained of the chemists, which will of course
save much time and trouble.
You then put a drachm of distilled oil of cloves, turpentine, or
carraways, in a glass vessel; and if you add an equal quantity, or
rather more, of the above spirit, though both are in themselves
perfectly cold, yet, on mixing them together, a great flame will arise
and destroy them both, leaving only a little resinous matter at the
bottom.