294 Mr. Gassiot on the relation of Electrical & Chemical Actiotis 



labours of Faraday have, moreover, added powerful argu- 

 ments in favour of this theory ; but it must be acknowledged 

 that it is not easy to defend it when we advert to electricity of 

 tension developed in the contact of two heterogeneous bodies, 

 especially if the two bodies are solid." 



Faraday*, who has recently instituted a series of elaborate 

 researches in support of the chemical theory, writes thus of 

 it : — " The theory assumes that the particles of the di-electric 

 (now an electrolyte) are, in the first instance, brought by or- 

 dinary induction into a polarized stale, and raised to a certain 

 degree of tension or intensity before discharge commences, 

 the inductive state being in fact a necessary preliminary to dis-* 

 charge." Again, " One point is, that different electrolytes or 

 di-electrics require different initial intensities for their decom- 

 position. This may depend upon the degree of polarization 

 which the particles require before electrolytic discharge com- 

 mences f." 



Grove J, in a recent communication to the Royal Society, 

 in allusion to the action of the gas battery, says, " If, indeed, 

 the contact theory assume contact as the efficient cause of vol- 

 taic action, but admit that this can only be circulated by che- 

 mical action, I see little difference, save in the mere hypo- 

 thetical expression, between the contact and chemical theories ; 

 any conclusion which would flow from the one would likewise 

 be deducible from the other; there is no observed sequence 

 of time in the phaenomena, the contact or completion of the 

 circuit and the electrolytical action are synchronous. If this 

 be the view of contact theorists, the rival theories are mere 

 disputes about terms. If, however, the contact theory con- 

 nects with the term contact an idea of force which does or may 

 produce a voltaic current independently of chemical action, a 

 force without consumption, I cannot but regard it as incon- 

 sistent with the whole tenor of voltaic facts and general expe- 

 rience." 



24. I shall have occasion to revert to the gas battery, the 

 action of which is fully described in the paper from which I 

 have taken the preceding quotation ; but the action we are 

 now examining is not that arising from contact or completion 

 of the circuit, but that which is caused by contact in the ar- 

 rangement of a progressive series of the elements of a voltaic 

 battery previous to the circuit being completed ; such progres- 

 sive arrangement being indispensable for the production of 

 the effects we are now examining, or the production of certain 

 forces in a given direction. A mere heterogeneous assemblage 



• Experimental Researches, § 1345. f Ibid. § 1354. 



X Philosophical Transactions, 1843 [and Phil. Mag. S, 3. vol. xxiv. p. 427.] . 



