Mr. Grove on the Gas Voltaic Battery. 353 



cell ; the rise of liquid in both was very trifling indeed (about 

 0*01 cubic inch), and had evidently nothing to do with voltaic 

 action. In. this experiment, and in every experiment that I 

 have tried, I have perceived a trifling action for the first few 

 minutes. This I should have attributed to accidental causes, 

 such as slight impurities in the gases, slight metallic deposits 

 on the plates, &c, but that it is always in the direction which 

 theory would indicate. Thus in the present experiment, the 

 appearance of iodine indicated oxygen to have the same voltaic 

 relation to nitrogen as it has to hydrogen. This temporary 

 effect, therefore, appears to me analogous to that action called 

 by continental experimentalists polarization, an apparent ten- 

 dency to action, i. e. an arrangement of molecules preliminary 

 to electrolysis, but incapable of producing a continued cur- 

 rent. In this and many other experiments with the gas bat- 

 tery I have observed this effect, but have never been able to 

 produce any chemical change or electro-synthetic absorption 

 of nitrogen. 



Experiment 22. — As oxalic acid when electrolysed evolves 

 at the anode a mixture of oxygen and carbonic acid, and at 

 the cathode hydrogen and carbonic oxide; for the reasons 

 above stated, 1 charged a gas battery with carbonic acid and 

 carbonic oxide in the alternate tubes, and with oxalic acid as 

 an electrolyte ; a slight effect was produced, the carbonic oxide 

 being to the carbonic acid as hydrogen to oxygen ; but the 

 current was evidently due to the atmospheric air in solution 

 combining with the carbonic oxide; this I proved by some of 

 the test experiments before mentioned, which I need not re- 

 capitulate. 



Experiment 23. — Hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulphate of am- 

 monia. This combination also gave effects with which the 

 nitrogen appeared to have nothing to do, this gas being per- 

 fectly unaffected ; I tried other experiments on this point, but 

 they all led to the same conclusion, viz. that my idea of reali- 

 zing a voltaic action by conversion of the ordinary effects of 

 electrolysis was erroneous. It may be that the above gaseous 

 products of electrolysis are secondary, and that water is the 

 only electrolyte in these cases ; but for this, as for many other 

 theoretical questions, there are so many arguments pro and 

 con, that it is not worth while to dilate on them unless they 

 can be shown to lead, or to be likely to lead, to some new 

 valuable facts or natural relations. 



Reviewing the above experiments, it appears that chlorine 

 and oxygen, on the one hand, and hydrogen and carbonic 

 oxide, on the other, are the only gases which were decidedly 

 capable of electro-syntheticallv combining so as to produce a 



Phil. Mag. S. 3. Vol. 24. No. 160. May 184-4. 2 A 



