ANALYSIS OF TIIE GALVANIC PILE. g43 



point only, because it involves one of the most important 



questions in terrestrial physics. Must we, in the present Electricity not 



state of our knowledge, be satisfied with electrical energies, J'JJjJ^ gf 



which might be considered as essentia/ properties of matter*? 



Or rather, in this very state of our knowledge, is it not al- but the effect 



ready ascertained, that a particular substance exists, name- of adirtiacl 



ly, the electric fluid, which, beside the effects here in view, 



produces greater and more general effects on our globe? 



This question is the main object of this and the following 



papers, and t hope it will be decided by facts. 



Having found no conducting substance more convenient The transmis* 



than paper, for transmitting from one to another of the bi- sl , on of * ne 



• electric fluid 



nary groups of metals their individual effects, I came to . )r omoted by 



consider whether it might not be of some advantage, on ac- pasting the pa- 

 p . ~ , . ., . , , . per to the ne- 



count ot the very small quantity ot electric fluid thus set in g a tj V e metal 



motion, to produce a closer contact of the paper with the & vice versa. 



metals between their groups. I made various experiments, 



by pasting the -paper, first on both metals, then on one only, 



in the intervals where I had placed it loose. My condenser 



rendered easy these trials, as I could make them on piles of 



only 20 groups, and the following was the general result. 



There is an increase in the transmission of the electric fluid, 



when the paper is pasted on the outside of such group, 



upon the metal, which becomes negative; but the reverse 



takes place, when it is pasted upon the metal which becomes 



positive. 



In the following experiments each pile of 20 groups was Mode of con- 

 placed upon the moving metallic pillar of my condenser, ductin 8 the 

 r r 3 • • t i experiments to 



and raised into contact with the receiving plate ot the latter, prove thi». 



where I left it during 20 seconds; then, letting it down, 

 and removing the upper plate, I observed the divergence of 

 the gold leaves, and noted it in decimals of an inch, as in 

 the experiments of the 1st part. In these operations, the 

 end of the small piles, which rested on the pillar commu- 

 nicating with the ground, was thereby neutral', and the 

 whole electric difference between its extremities was express- 

 ed, with its proper sign, by the electroscope of the conden* 



* Mr. Davy's Bakerian Lecture, Ph. Trans. 1807, Part I, p. 39V or 

 Journal, vol, XIX, p. 50. 



