ON SOME CHEMICAL AGENCIES OP ELECTRICITY. 323 



point of contact with the wire seemed considerably corroded ; Changes pro- 

 and I was confirmed in my idea of referring the production tricity ia water. 

 of the alkali principally to this source, by finding that no 

 fixed saline matter could be obtained, by electrifying distilled 

 water in a single agate cup from two points of platina con- 

 nected with the Voltaic battery. Similar conclusions with 

 regard to the appearance of the muriatic acid had been 

 formed by the Galvanic Society of Paris, by Dr. Wollaston, 

 who hit upon the happy expedient of connecting the tubes 

 together by well washed asbestus; and by M. M. Bipt and 

 Thenard *. 



Mr. Sylvester, however, in a paper published in Mr. 

 Nicholson's Journal for last August, states, that though no 

 fixed alkali or muriatic acid appears when a single vessel is 

 employed ; yet that they are both formed when two vessels 

 are used. And to do away all objections with regard to ve- 

 getable substances or glass, he conducted his process in a 

 Tcssel made of baked tobacco-pipe clay inserted in a crucible 

 of platina. I have no doubt of the correctness of his results; 

 hut the conclusion appears objectionable. He conceives, that 

 he obtained fixed alkali, because the fluid after being heated 

 and evaporated left a matter that tinged turmeric brown, 

 which would have happened had it been lime, a substance 

 that exists in considerable quantities in all pipe-clay; and 

 even allowing the presence of fixed alkali, the materials em- 

 ployed for the manufacture of tobacco-pipes are not at all ^ 

 such as to exclude the combinations of this substance. 



I resumed the inquiry ; I procured small cylindrical cups 

 of agate, of the capacity of about | of a cubic inch each. 

 They were boiled for some hours in distilled water, and a 

 piece of very white and transparent amianthus, that had been 

 treated in the same way, was made to connect them together; 

 they were filled with distilled water, and exposed by means 

 of two platina wires to a current of electricity, from 150 pairs 

 of plates of copper and zinc 4 inches square, made active by 

 means of solution of alum. After 48 hours the process was 

 examined : paper tinged with litmus plunged into the tube 

 containing the transmitting or positive wire was immediately 



■^ No. XL cfu Moniteur, 1806. 



Y ^ strongly 



