ANALYSIS OF THE GALVANIC PILE. £4J 



positive side, which has more ; and a? this influence must 

 change according- to the changes in the electric state of the 

 air, the modification* of the electroscopes at the extremities % 



oi* the pile may lead to untold the latter, but not without 

 farther discoveries. 



1 was stopped in the progress of these researches by an in- Difficulties. 

 cident, which has occasioned me much labour, and still re- 

 tards them. This new pile is certainly in itself a meteorolo- 

 gical instrument of great importance, as may be already 

 judged, and shall be farther explained in the following pa- 

 per ; but in the state above described it was not fit for regu- 

 lar observations, and till the present moment* I have not 

 yet surmounted all the difficulties : I foresaw them, and it 

 was the reason why I wished, that the beginning of this 

 new career should be soon known to experimental philoso- 

 phers through the Phil. Transactions; in order that it might 

 be followed by others, and probably with more success 

 than by myself; but I am reduced to give the history of my 

 own progress. 



From what has been above explained, the strikings of the Thegold learns 

 gold leaves in the electroscopes were become the object of at last stuck. 

 observation : for this purpose therefore they ought to have 

 regularly continued; however, after one of the gold leaves^ 

 at either side, had alternately struck and fallen for some 

 time, it at last stuck to the tin foil, , The side therefore, to 

 which this happened, was placed in permanent communica- 

 tion with the groundy which made the strildngs to begin at 

 the opposite side; but there also the gold leaf stuck. These 

 adhesions continued, till, by a stroke on the top of the elec- 

 troscope, the gold leaf fell ; the oscillations were then re- 

 newed, but again stopped in the same manner. I tried va- Attempts to 

 rious methods for preventing this adhesion, especially by P reveu ^this. 

 substituting for the tin foil, which has a rough surface, po- 

 lished laminae of many sorts and forms, keeping them even 

 at some distance from the glass, which might contribute to 

 thisettect; but all was to no purpose, still the gold leaf 

 would stick. This was a great disappointment, aud the 

 only method I could devise was, to increase the power of a 



• Two years have elapsed since I communicated to the Royal Society 

 the Experiments and Observations which are here my object. 



pile 





