Qjiantity of Electricity not increased withNumher of Plates, 335 



that two sets of affinities, in place of being opposed to each 

 other as in figg. 1, 4. (880. 891.)j are made to act in con- 

 formity, then, instead of either interfering with the other, it 

 will rather assist it. This is simply the case of two voltaic 

 pairs of metals arranged so as to form one circuit. In such ar- 

 rangements the activity of the whole is known to be increased, 

 and when ten, or a hundred, or any larger number of such 

 alternations are placed in conformable association with each 

 other, the power of the whole becomes proportionably exalted, 

 and we obtain that magnificent instrument of philosophic re- 

 search, the voltaic battery. 



990. But it is evident from the principles of definite action 

 already laid down, that the quantity of electricity in the cur- 

 rent cannot be increased with the increase of the quantity of 

 metal oxidized and dissolved at each new place of chemical, 

 action. A single pair of zinc and platina plates throws as 

 much electricity into the form of a current, by the oxidation 

 of 32*5 grains of the zinc (868.) as would be given by the 

 same alteration of a thousand times that quantity, or nearly 

 five pounds of metal oxidized at the surface of the zinc plates 

 of a thousand pairs placed in regular battery order. For it is 

 evident, that the electricity which passes across the acid from 

 the zinc to the platina in the first cell, and which has been 

 associated with, or even originated by, the decomposition of a 

 definite portion of water in that cell, cannot pass from the zinc 

 to the platina across the acid in the second cell, without the 

 decomposition of the same quantity of water there, and the 

 oxidation of the same quantity of zinc by it (924'. 949.). The 

 same result recurs in every other cell; the electro-chemical 

 equivalent of water must be decomposed in each,before the cur- 

 rent can pass through it; for the quantity of electricity passed, 

 and the quantity of electrolyte decomposed, must be the equiva- 

 lents of each other. The action in each cell, therefore, is not 

 to increase the quantity set in motion in any one cell, but to 

 aid in urging forward that quantity, the passing of which is 

 consistent with the oxidation of its own zinc ; and in this way 

 it exalts that peculiar property of the current which we endea- 

 vour to express by the term intensity, without increasing the 

 quantity beyond that which is proportionate to the quantity 

 of zinc oxidized in any single cell of the series. 



991. To prove this, 1 arranged ten pairs of amalgamated 

 zinc and platina plates with dilute sulphuric acid in the form 

 of a battery. On completing the circuit, all the pairs acted 

 and evolved gas at the surfaces of the platina. This was col- 

 lected and found to be alike in quantity for each plate ; and 

 the quantity of hydrogen evolved at any one platina plate was 



