300 Mr. Gassiot on the relation of Electrical &; Chemical Actions 



the gases used in this battery are oxygen and hydrogen (which 

 will from their affinity for each other enter into chemical com- 

 bination), a series of ten or twelve is sufficient to develope 

 static effects ; but that, when charged with gases which have 

 not this power, viz. oxygen and nitrogen, even a series of forty 

 does not affect the electroscope. 



40. The advantage of using oxygen and hydrogen is, that 

 although the hydrogen is slightly absorbed by local action with 

 the atmospheric air in the solution, action does not take place 

 in the oxygen tubes until electrolysis commences ; and we have 

 thus the most correct means of defining our results. 



41. With hydrogen and chlorine, signs of tension were ob- 

 tained with a series of six pairs of cells. 



42. With chlorine in a single tube, and amalgamated zinc 

 as the positive element, a combination by which, as Grove has 

 shown*, one pair will decompose water, a series of two pairs 

 affected the electroscope. 



43. Having thus elicited that for the purpose of obtaining 

 static effects with a gas battery, it is indispensable that the two 

 gases employed be capable of entering into chemical combi- 

 nation with each other, and having found that the higher the 

 state of their mutual chemical affinities, the less was the num- 

 ber of series required to produce static effects, my attention 

 naturally reverted to the older forms of the voltaic battery. I 

 allude to those having two metallic elements excited by acid 

 solutions. 



44. Ten of the glass cells of the water battery (5.) were 

 filled with dilute sulphuric acid. In each cell I placed a small 

 porous earthenware vessel, also filled with the same solution. 

 The metallic elements in this arrangement were amalgamated 

 zinc and platinum ; the latter being placed in the porous 

 vessels, each cell was carefully insulated. This arrangement 

 affected the leaves of the electroscope (fig. 6), while it required 

 sixteen series of the water battery (5.) to produce the same 

 effect. 



45. The dilute acid was then removed from the porous 

 vessels, and these were refilled with strong nitric acid, forming 

 the well-known nitric acid battery of Grove. Three series of 

 this arrangement affected the electroscope, and with the assist- 

 ance of a Zamboni's pile, distinct signs of tension could be eli- 

 cited from a single pair ; the platinum showing vitreous and 

 the zinc resinous electricity. 



From the preceding experiments it appears, that to obtain 

 evidence of tension, the principal requisite is good insulation, 



• Philosophical Transactions, 1843, p. 103, Note [Phil. Mag. S. 3. vol. 

 xxiv. p. 352 note]. 



