78 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



I have also shown how, with fluids and platinum or charcoal with- 

 out an alkaline solution, we may succeed in obtaining piles with a 

 constant current. I conclude my memoir by showing fully the evo- 

 lution of electricity in the combustion of gases or of charcoal. I 

 had already taken up this question in 1824, by means of the con- 

 densing electrometer and plates of platinum ; a year afterwards 

 M. Pouillet analysed these effects, especially those produced by the 

 combustion of charcoal. Having already proved that during the 

 contact of the flames with the plates of platinum thermo- electrical 

 effects were produced, I again went over all my experiments in 1849, 

 no longer with the electrometer, as I had found that flames were 

 conductors of electricity of very low tension, as well as glass when 

 heated even considerably below redness. It was on this occasion 

 that my son Edmond made a series of experiments to show that hot 

 air, and all gases heated to a suitable temperature, were conductors 

 of electricity. It is extremely probable that all non-conducting 

 bodies, when sufiiciently heated, become conductors of electricity, 

 just as they do when in a state of extreme tenuity. 



I have been led to the discovery of a new property of platinum of 

 ■which no idea has ever been entertained, — that of presenting differ- 

 ent thermo-electrical properties at different temperatures. With these 

 new means of action I have been able tojshow exactly that platinum, 

 either in plate or wire, ought never to be employed in collecting the 

 electricity of flames, seeing that it only produces thermo-electrical 

 effects. With the same means of action, different from those hitherto 

 employed, I have examined the evolution of electricity during com- 

 bustion, and have been led to the same result as M. Pouillet ; except 

 that it is much more distinct, and its intensity may be augmented by 

 assisting the combustion with nitre. 



From the facts detailed in this memoir the following consequences 

 may be deduced : — 



1. In all chemical reactions electricity is disenrT-aged. 



2. In the reactions of acids or acid solutions with metals or alka- 

 line solutions, the acids and acid solutions always take an excess of 

 positive electricity, the metals and alkaline solutions a correspond- 

 ing excess of negative electricity. 



3. The disengagement of electricity during combustion ii governed 

 by the same principle, that is to say the combustible body disengages 

 negative, the burning body positive electricity. 



4. Decompositions produce inverse electrical effects. 



5. There is no disengagement of electricity unless the two 

 bodies are conductors of electricity ; thus in the combination of a 

 metal with dry oxygen, iodine or bromine, there is no production of 

 electricity. 



6. In the mixture of acids with water, or in their combination 

 with that fluid, the water acts as a base, whilst it acts as an acid in 

 relation to alkaline solutions. 



7. Concentrated solutions of neutral salts act towards water in 

 regard to the electrical effects produced in the same manner as acid« 

 with bases. 



8. Acids when combining or mixing with each other behave so that 



