of water, and were made to mingle just before the exit at a common orifice. In the English apparatus, the gases are both in one reservoir, and they are propelled by their own elasticity, after a condensation by a syringe. Professor Clarke, of Cambridge University, the celebrated traveller, is the author of the Memoir in question, and we must presume that he was ignorant of what had been done by Mr. Hare and myself, or he would candidly have adverted to the facts.
“Measures have been taken to set the matter right in Europe, but in the mean time whatever treatment the subject may receive there, it is proper that the American public should know that Mr. Hare was the inventor of the instrument with which in Europe they are now performing the most brilliant experiments, and that there are very few of the results hitherto obtained there by the use of it (and the publication of which has there excited great interest) which were not several years ago anticipated here, either by Mr. Hare or myself.”[1]
It appears that, in consequence of no recognition being made of Dr. Hare’s claims by Dr. Clarke, although a spirited protest was communicated to him, Dr. Hare entered into a full exposition of his discovery and a complete vindication of his rights before the scientific world, in “Silliman’s Journal,” vol. 2, 1820.
The injustice above referred to was not, however, universal in Europe. On the part of many gentlemen of high scientific character, the merit of the discovery was given to its rightful possessor. In 1813 the merit of the discovery was acknowledged by Dr. Hope, of Edinburgh, in the following language: “For the invention of this very ingenious machine we are indebted to Dr. Robert Hare, of Philadelphia, a gentleman whose merits claim a distinguished rank among the most successful promoters of Chemistry in the United States of America.”[2] When it is recollected that this was spoken at a time that a bitter war existed between Great Britain and this country, we cannot but admire the spirit of scientific candor manifested,
