420 Professor Grove on a Gaseous Voltaic Battery. 



determined; supposing the gases at the electrodes and at the 

 plates exposed to uniform facilities of solution, the quantity 

 evolved should be equal to that absorbed. 



Several curious points are suggested by this novel battery. 



«. How is its action explicable on the contact theory ? I 

 am by no means wedded to any theory, and have constantly 

 endeavoured to look with the eye of a contact theorist upon the 

 facts of voltaic electricity, but I cannot see them in that light ; 

 if there be any truth in the contact theory, I either misunder- 

 stand it, or my mind is unconsciously biassed. Where is the 

 contact in this experiment, if not everywhere ? Is it at the 

 points of junction of the liquid, gas, and platina? If so it is 

 there that the chemical action takes place ; and as contact is 

 always necessary for chemical action, all chemistry may be 

 referred to contact, or upon the theory of an universal plenum, 

 all natural phaenomena may be referred to it. Contact may 

 be necessary, but how can it stand in the relation of a cause, 

 or of a force? 



|3. Its phaenomena present to my mind a resolution of cataly- 

 sis into voltaic force, in other words, the action of this battery 

 bears the same relation to the phaenomena of catalysis as that 

 of the ordinary batteries does to those of ordinary chemistry. 

 Whether these effects could be produced by other inoxidable 

 metals (such as gold or silver) is an experiment worth trying. 

 The more we examine chemical and voltaic actions, the more 

 closely do we assimilate them. For some mysterious reason 

 three elements seem necessary for very many if not for all 

 chemical actions. 



y. This battery is peculiar in having the current generated 

 by gases, and by synthesis of an equal but opposite kind at 

 both anode and cathode; it is therefore, theoretically, more 

 perfect than any other form, as the batteries at present known, 

 act by one affinity at the anode, and have to overcome an- 

 other at the cathode. 



8. This battery establishes that gases in combining and ac- 

 quiring a liquid form evolve sufficient force to decompose a 

 similar liquid and cause it to acquire a gaseous form. This 

 is to my mind the most interesting effect of the battery ; it ex- 

 hibits such a beautiful instance of the correlation of natural 

 forces. 



Many other notions crowd upon my mind, but I have oc- 

 cupied sufficient space and must leave them for the present, 

 hoping that other experimenters will think the subject worth 

 pursuing. I remain, my dear Sir, yours very sincerely, 



London Institution, Oct. 29, 1842. W. R. Grove. 



