Royal Society. 411 



original papers, including thirteen on meteorology, were communi- 

 cated by him to various scientific publications; among others he 

 published several memoirs on Crystallization, and its attendant phe- 

 nomena. Between the years 18*30 and 1844, the Transactions of 

 this Society were enriched by twelve papers on important subjects 

 from his pen. He invented a process for making gas from resin for 

 the purposes of illumination, by which the streets of New York are 

 lighted at the present time. For this improvement he received no 

 other acknowledgment than a vote of a few pounds' worth of books. 

 In the year 1830, he described in the Philosophical Transactions, a 

 new instrument for measuring high degrees of heat, such as the 

 temperature of furnaces, and the melting-points of metals. By 

 means of this, his pyrometer, he ascertained numerous facts of great 

 interest both in a scientific and in a practical point of view. For 

 the invention of this instrument, which is still the best for the objects 

 intended, the Royal Society awarded him the Rumford Medal. 



After his appointment as Professor of Chemistry in King's College, 

 his researches were turned principally to the phenomena presented 

 by Voltaic Electricity, and they led to the invention of his constant 

 battery ; for this the Royal Society conferred upon him the highest 

 honour in their gift, the Copley Medal for the year 1836. The 

 possibility of maintaining powerful and equable currents of electri- 

 city for any required period, was established by this invention. 

 The impulse thus given to the progress of electrical research cannot 

 be too highly estimated, and to it must be traced the numerous ap- 

 plications of electricity, to the blasting of rocks, the working of 

 mines, and to submarine operations, and to the arts of electro-plating, 

 gilding, zincing, &c, which have recently acquired such magnitude. 

 His subsequent researches in the same field are contained in the 

 Philosophical Transactions, and were honoured by the Society in 

 the year 1842 by one of the Royal Medals. In 1839 Professor 

 Daniell was placed on the Commission appointed by the Admiralty 

 to inquire into the best method of defending the ships in the Royal 

 Navy from lightning, and the same year the Royal Society honoured 

 him with the office of Foreign Secretary to their body. His " In- 

 troduction to Chemical Philosophy," published during the course of 

 this year, contributed still further to increase his reputation, and in 

 1842 he received from the University of Oxford the honorary degree 

 of D.C.L. In consequence of the rapid corrosion of the copper 

 sheathing of the vessels employed upon the African stations, the 

 Admiralty requested him to examine the damaged sheets of metal 

 and the waters taken up from the localities where the corrosion was 

 the greatest ; he detected the cause of this decay, showing that sul- 

 phuretted hydrogen was abundantly generated in the ocean at these, 

 spots, and succeeded in extracting from the metal plates the sulphur 

 which had occasioned their corrosion. It is a remarkable proof of 

 the variety and extent of Mr. Daniell's acquirements, that he received 

 at different times all the medals in the gift of the Royal Society. 



The circumstances which attended the sudden and lamented ter- 

 mination of his valuable life, are known to most of the Fellows of 



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