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As I am willing to avow myself the writer of the article in the " Haverhill (Mass) G 6. zette," respecting burning fluid, and the New ell Lamp, an extract lrom which, with some comments thereon, you publish on page 160 ol your useful journal, I trust you will suffer me to say a word in vindication of its justnes. and entire correctness. since it has been called in question by the statements of Dr. C. T. Jackson, Newell, and others. I wish to be briel, and therefore I will say at once that every statement contained in that article is strictly and entirely correct, and '1 challenge the parties denying them to prove them otherwise. I am ready to show b proof, which will not be questioned a single moment, that hundreds of gallons of" turmeric colored " burning fluid is sold every week ir Boston. I will produce a highly respectable manufacturer of burning fluid, who will testi fy that he has been provided with a glass mea sure, and been directed to add it full of tinct of tumeric to each barrel of burning fluid, by a dealer in " Safe Patent Oil." Who will connive at and deny the existence of such outrages Is this gentleman, who is a " distin guished chemist," willing to meet me on .this subject 1 This gentleman uses a " hydro.carbon fluid, with diluted alcohol, containing 20 per cent. of water, which makes it less dangerous," &c. No chemist would ever make a statement like this. I profess to be some what iptimately acquainted with the exact chemical nature of all volatile hydro-carbon mixtures used for purposes of household Illumination, and do not believe in such a mixture as that, containing 20 per cent. of water. Will he give me the formula for the mixture he uses, I wish to examine it? I stated in the article in the " Gazette," " that if Newell was to be believed these holes in the cap of his lamp were ordered by Jackson." Gentlemen of the highest respectability in Boston have signified their willingness to testify, under oath, that Newell has stated to them, repeatedly, that Jackson would not give his certificate until the holes were made. It is generally understood that Dr. Jackson proposed them. The holes still continue to be made in the cap, and it is a mild term you use, Messrs. Editors, when you call them a " scientific blunder." You state thdt you have been unable to find a record of Jennings' old patent !or wire-gauze tubes, like Newell's, tao ken out in 1836. You will not find it in the books ; it was, I think, destroyed at the time the Patent Office was burned. A record of the patent is on file at the Department. , : y one who has any doubt respecting the grant. ing of this patent can receive positive infor. mation by writing to the Commissioner. I have, in my hand, at this time, one of Jennings' gauze tubes probably a dozen years old. There are many of them in existence in Bos ton at the present time. In respect to burning fluid, I wish to say that I have not, and never have had, any interest whatever in the manufacture or sale of the article. Jas. R. Nichols. Haverhill, Mass. LSee some r8marks on this letter on page 189.Ed ]
