274 



Mr. Grove oil the Gas Voltaic Batt ery. 



We may observe generally in these experiments, that the 

 hydrogen evolved in the voltameter is somewhat more than 

 double the volume of the oxygen, and that a still extra quan- 

 tity of hydrogen is absorbed in the battery. With regard to 

 the excess of hydrogen in the voltameter, this, as is well known 

 to electricians, is always observable in the electrolysis of water, 

 and has been attributed by Faraday to the more ready solu- 

 bility of oxygen, and its tendency to form oxygenated water*; 

 but we have in the above experiments a still greater excess of 

 hydrogen absorbed in the battery tubes; this result previous 

 experiments had led me to expect. In one of these I found 

 voltaic action produced by tubes charged alternately with hy- 

 drogen and water, and attributed it to the combination of hy- 

 drogen with the oxygen of atmospheric air in solution f. 

 Granting for the moment this explanation to be correct, in a 

 gas battery charged with oxygen and hydrogen we should have, 

 upon completion of the circuit, three distinct voltaic actions: 

 — First, the principal action occasioned by the gases in the 

 tubes reacting upon each other through the medium of the 

 electrolyte, i. e. reverting to fig. 4, an action in which the por- 

 tions of the platinum exposed to the gases p q, p' q', would be 

 the efficient plates. Secondly, an action between the hydro- 

 gen at p' q' and the air in solution in the neighbourhood of 

 the immersed portion of the plate y, r ; this would add to the 

 general current, but would tend disproportionately to diminish 

 the hydrogen. Thirdly, a local action between the hydrogen 

 at p\ q' and the air in solution around the part <?', r 1 ; this 

 would add nothing to the general current, but would also tend 

 to diminish the hydrogen. As this last is totally independent 

 of the general action, it could be abstracted by merely placing 

 a cell charged similarly to the battery out of the circuit with 

 the terminals unconnected as in fig. 1 ; in a cell so placed the 



* Experimental Researches, § 716, 71 7- 

 f Phil. Mag., Dec. 1842, p. 419, Exp. 11. 



