350 Mr. Adieus Experiments with Galvanic Couples 



cannot allow this opportunity to pass by without thanking him 

 for the kindness and liberality which he has shown in placing 

 his laboratory at my disposal, in leaving so much of my time 

 on my own hands, and in rendering me every assistance in 

 his power. 



LVII. An Account of Experiments with Galvanic Couples 

 immersed in pure water and in oxygenated water. By Mr. 

 Richard Adie*. 



TN the years 1845 and 1846, I published in the Edinburgh 

 -*- Philosophical Journal two series of experiments, made 

 with a view to prove that the action of the water battery was 

 maintained by absorbing oxygen from the atmosphere. Some 

 of these experimentsf show that it is the oxygen only that is 

 drawn from the atmosphere, and that the presence of the 

 other component parts is unnecessary. But there was one 

 given to show that zinc and copper elements placed in a her- 

 metically sealed tube along with pure water did not act, there 

 being no flocculent deposit of oxide of zinc, which is formed 

 in abundance when a minute aperture admits the atmosphere 

 to the contents of the tube. After a lapse of two years, I ex- 

 amined an arrangement of this kind which had been her- 

 metically sealed since December 1844 ; there was no apparent 

 change, the water was transparent, and the metals bright. 

 I had scarcely put the tube down when it burst with violence ; 

 this fact immediately satisfied me that the water battery must 

 have a true decomposition of water action when it acts on 

 zinc associated with copper or any other metal less oxidizable 

 than the copper, independent of the much more extensive 

 effect due to atmospheric oxygen. It is from a desire to trace 

 by experiment the double action of this battery that I respect- 

 fully submit for the consideration of the Society the following 

 results : — 



In fig. \, aaa represents six pieces of zinc soldered at c c 

 to a corresponding number of pieces of copper bb h, arranged 

 alternately as in the figure, and insulated from one another 

 by strands of thread, dddd. These were placed inside a 

 flint-glass test-tube, which was after their insertion drawn off 

 at the blowpipe to a capillary point. The tube was now filled 

 with pure water, and to dislodge the air from among the 

 fibres of the thread, the water was repeatedly boiled, closing 

 and re-opening the capillary point at each boiling. When 

 the air was well-removed, the tube was hermetically sealed, 



* Communicated by the Chemical Society; having been read April 19, 

 1847. 

 f Edinburgh New Phil. Journal, vol. xxxviii. p. Q^, and vol. xl. 



