ELECTROSYNTHESIS. 



IN the year 1800, Nicholson and Carlisle found that when 

 a galvanic current was made to pass through water, 

 this compound was decomposed into its elements, oxygen 

 and hydrogen. The experiment excited a great amount of 

 attention at the time, and numerous observations were at 

 once made on the subject of electrolysis, or decomposition 

 by means of the electric current. These culminated in the 

 researches of Davy, who seven years later made his brilliant 

 discovery of the alkali metals, sodium and potassium. On 

 the theoretical side, the study of electrolysis was equally 

 fruitful, for it led to the foundation of the electrochemical 

 theory of Berzelius, which for more than a quarter of a 

 century held the field to the practical exclusion of all others. 

 According to this theory the bonds uniting the various 

 components of chemical compounds were of electrical origin, 

 and each compound could be resolved, in theory if not in 

 practice, into an electropositive constituent and an electro- 

 negative constituent. These components again might each 

 be resolved into electropositive and electronegative parts, 

 until the atoms themselves were reached. The decom- 

 position was in many cases effected practically by the electric 

 current. Thus a solution of potassium sulphate, which was 

 supposed to consist of electropositive potash K 2 0, and 

 electronegative sulphuric acid S0 3 , is actually decomposed 

 electrolytically into potash and sulphuric acid, which travel 

 to the opposite poles of the battery. Potash again, when 

 electrolysed, splits up mto electropositive potassium and 

 electronegative oxygen, the potassium going to the nega- 

 tive pole and the oxygen to the positive pole. 



This mode of viewing chemical compounds was of great 



value in systematic chemistry, and possibly to it we owe 



the first example of electrosynthesis, although the true 



nature of the phenomenon was not at the time recognised. 



Kolbe in 1849 subjected an aqueous solution of potas- 



