158 ELECTRO-CHEMICAL PRINCIPLES. 



elevation of body, nn elevation of temperature much higher than could be 



temperature p ro duced by the combination of any other body with the same 



combustible. These reflections appear to indicate that, in the 



phenomenon of combustion, as in general in every chemical 



combination, the phenomenon of fire is produced by a cause 



analogous to that which is manifested on the occasion of the 



by a process discharge of the electric pile ; that is to say, by a discharge be- 



rescmbling the tW een tj ie opposite electricities of the oxigen and of the com- 

 voitaic dis- . 



charge : bustible body, which is made at the moment of combination. 



and this will The same considerations also explain why the phenomenon 

 on P thTstreneth °** ** re ' l * more mtense accordingly as the affinity of the bodies 

 of affinity, which combine is more powerful (varying from the slightest 

 than on change e ] evat j on f temperature to the most intense fire) without any 

 remarkable relation between the expansion or condensation the 

 bodies may have undergone from their union. 

 Kence the ef- This electro-chemical view explains what was so difficult to 



fects of sul- k e comprehended in the time of our predecessors, namely, how 

 phuration are L r ■ f 



similar ro sulphuration could produce a phenomenon of fire exactly simi- 



thoseof com- ] a r to that produced by combustion ; and it classes together all 

 the disengagements of caloric or fire, occasioned by chemical 

 combinations. As it explains, in a consistent manner, that 

 which the old theory could not account for, it appears to deserve 

 our confidence, or at least our attention. I shall explain my 

 notions by an example. 

 And charcoal Jf anv very powerful electric pile be discharged by pieces of 

 between the charcoal in hidrcgen or azote gas, we see the charcoal become 

 pileinhidro ignited, and produce the same phenomenon, as if it were ac- 

 gen or azote, tually burning. A spectator, who, on this occasion, had no 

 nited°a?in ox"i knowledge of the influence of the pile, would say that the 

 gen ; but there charcoal was burning. But, nevertheless, there is, in this case, 

 bu^on" 1 " neither oxidation nor chemical combination of any ponderable 

 matter with the charcoal, and, notwithstanding this, the pheno- 

 menon of fire is the same as if it had been produced by com- 

 bustion. Now, it appears to be a well-founded conclusion, that 

 the same effects are produced by the same causes; that is to 

 say, that the fire in each of these cases is produced by an elec- 

 tric discharge. 

 The oxigen is Charcoal does not condense oxigen by burning, but, on the 



not corutjiistd con t ra ry j s dissolved in the gas of which the volume under- 

 by burning ' . ° 



charcoal 3 and, gees no change. We cannot, therefore, assert, that the caloric 



of 



