before and after completion of the Voltaic Circuit. 289 



8. With all the precautions I have described, the insula- 

 tion of the battery was still imperfect; and, from the expe- 

 rience which I have gained during the construction of this 

 apparatus, I have little hesitation in asserting, that the very 

 nature of the water battery must prevent the experimentalist 

 from obtaining insulation for any lengthened period, when 

 such an extended series is employed. 



9. In proceeding to describe the effects which this appa- 

 ratus has presented, I must endeavour to draw a distinct line 

 of demarcation between the static and the dynamic effects ; for 

 although these are, in a certain sense, both associated in some 

 forms of electric development, yet as I have been enabled in a 

 degree to isolate them here, it is my intention to regard them 

 separately. 



10. We know, from the very earliest experiments, that the 

 extremities of a voltaic pile present opposite electrical states; 

 it is therefore stating no new fact, to say that when one extre- 

 mity of the series is connected with the ground, the other, on 

 being connected with a gold-leaf electroscope, indicates a high 

 degree of electric tension, and that the gold leaves diverge 

 with considerable energy. Indeed, in the battery above de- 

 scribed, there was little need of making connection with the 

 ground ; for, with all my precautions, I found the insulation 

 was in a short time very imperfect, and that, by this commu- 

 nication with the earth, a complete circuit, to a certain extent, 

 already existed. 



11. As the static effects present themselves antecedently to 

 the dynamic, they necessarily demand the first notice. The 

 entire battery was connected in one series, and copper wires 

 from the extreme cells were connected with the plates a and h 

 of the double electroscope (fig. 4) ; this instantly produced a 

 considerable and steady divergence of the gold leaves ; and, 

 on applying the usual tests, the plate 6, connected with the 

 copper extremity, gave signs of vitreous, and a, connected 

 with the zinc, of resinous electricity. If a was connected with 

 one extremity of the battery, and the other extremity was 

 connected or not with the ground, the same general effects 

 occurred ; the divergence of the leaves corresponded with the 

 connection, and the leaves of h diverged by induction ; if, in 

 this state, h was touched and then removed from the influence 

 of a, it was found charged with the opposite electricity. 



12. These inductive effects were obtained under other forms; 

 for instance, the condensing plate (jo), which had been re- 

 moved during the preceding experiments, was opposed to the 

 charged plate a. When a alone was connected with the bat- 

 tery, and p was touched, while under the influence of induc- 



Phil Mag. S. 3. Vol. 25. No. 166. Oct. 1844. U 



