g$4 ANALYSIS OF THE GALVANIC PILE. 



electroscope was affected negatively to a certain measurable 

 quantity. 



3. Inverting the little pile, 1 had no sensible effect by 

 these contacts of 4 seconds on the zinc side, and it was ne- 

 cessary to lengthen the time to 8 seconds ; but in order to 

 produce on the electroscope a positive effect equal to the 

 negative of the preceding trial, I wag obliged to make 40 

 contacts, on account of the dissipation of the effects on the 

 condenser in each interval of time. This experiment shows 

 however sufficiently, that the zinc side of each group yields, 

 through the paper, to the next group, some of the electric 

 Jluid that it takes from the copper with which it is associ- 

 ated. 

 Elementary ^ e nave ^ rom tfifWf experiments all the elementary prin- 



principles of ciples necessary for the motion of the electric Jluid in the 

 the flISd m the P ,le ' ™4 they are the following.— I. In each binary group, 

 pile. the zinc plate takes some electric fluid from its associate 



the copper; the latter, in my new pile, being the coppered 

 side of the Dutch-gilt paper. 2. In each group also, zinc 

 communicates, through the paper, some of its excess of 

 Jiuid to the c pper of the next group on its side. 3. In each 

 group again the copper takes, through the paper, from the 

 zinc of the next group on its side, some of the Jluid that it 

 / has lost to its associated zinc. The same effects taking 

 place in every group, with the next on both sides, along the 

 whole pile, these effects are successively added to those that 

 the respective next groups have already undergone accord- 

 ing to their place; and thus the negative state goes on in- 

 creasing from one end to th<» other of the pile, toward what 

 is called the copper extremity; and the positive state is in- 

 creasing toward the zinc extremity. 



These effects may be represented by numbers; though, 

 from the great variations in the quantity at different times, 

 and the imperfection of the electroscopes, these numbers 

 remain undetermined : I shall express them in a pile of 11 

 groups, indicating by A the zinc side, and by B the copper 

 side. The two following scies represent the progress of 

 negative and positive effects above mentioned, which, com- 

 bining in each successive group from A to B, constitute, 

 according to circumstances, the three different states of the 

 pile, afterward figured. 



