5^ ON SOME CHEM|CAL AGENCJES OF ELECTRICITY. 



Relations be- all the eilects must be less vivid ; and the compound, instead 



tweentheel.ee- of being neutral, ought to exhibit the excess of the stronger 

 trim energies " n » 



of bodies and energy. 



«Bnitr CmiC *' TlllS Ia3t k1(>Q is connrmed b ) r a11 the experiments, which I 

 have been able to make on the energies of the saline com- 

 pounds with regard to the metals. Nitrate and sulphate of 

 potash, muriate of lime, oximuriate of potash, though re- 

 peatedly touched upon a large surface by plates of copper 

 and zinc, gave no electrical charge to them; subcarbonate 

 of soda and borax, on the contrary, gave a slight negative 

 charge, and alum and superphosphate of lime a feeble posi- 

 tive charge. 



Should this principle on further inquiry be found to apply 

 generally, the degree of the electrical energies of bodies, as- 

 certained by means of sensible instruments, will afford new 

 and useful indications of their composition. 



IX. On the mode of action on the pile of Volta, with experi- 

 mental elucidations. 



Mode of action. The great tendency of the attraction of the different che-» 



onVolta's pile, rnlca ] agents, by the positive, and negative surfaces in the 

 with exoeri- . \ . . 



mental eluci- Voltaic apparatus, seems to be to restore the electrical equi- 

 dations, librium. In a Voltaic battery, composed of copper, zinc, and 



solution of muriate of soda, all circulation of the electricity 

 ceases, the equilibrium is restored if copper be brought in 

 contact with the zinc on both sides: and oxigen and acids, 

 which are attracted by the positively electrified zinc, exert 

 similar agencies to the copper, but probably in a slighter de-» 

 gree, and being capable of combination with the metal, they 

 produce a momentary equilibrium only. 



The electrical energies of the metals with regard to each 

 other, or the substances dissolved in the water, in the Vol- 

 taic and other analogous instruments, seem to be the causes 

 - disturb the equilibrium, and the chemical changes the 

 se» that tend to restore the equilibrium; and the pheno- 

 mena most probably depend on their joint agency. 



In the Voltaic pile of zinc, copper, and solution of muriate 

 of soda, in what has been called its condition of electrical 

 tension, the communicating plates of copper and zinc are in 

 ^>posite electrical states. And with regard to electricities of 



such 



