272 Dr. Faraday's Experimental Researches in Electricity. 



initial arbitrary discontinuity of the motion. The general 

 proposition proved above renders it unnecessary to have re- 

 course to this method. 



To complete this subject it will be proper to determine 

 what takes place when the propagated motion reaches the 

 fixed extremity of the chord. Suppose two propagations to 

 take place in opposite directions, being exactly like in every re- 

 spect excepting that the ordinates in one are of" a contrary 

 sign to those in the other. The point where the opposite 

 propagations meet, being affected by equal and opposite mo- 

 tions, will remain constantly at rest. Nothing will be altered 

 if this be supposed a fixed point, and the portion of the chord 

 on one side be removed. We have then the case of a pro- 

 pagation reflected from a fixed extremity of the chord, and 

 the manner in which it will take place is easily inferred from 

 these considerations. This proposition being proved, the prin- 

 ciples advocated in this paper, suffice for solving all the ques- 

 tions commonly proposed respecting the vibrations of elastic 

 chords. 

 Pap worth St. Everard, Jan. 19, 1835. 



XLV. Experimental Researches in Electricity. — Eighth Se- 

 ries. By Michael Faraday, D.C.L.F.R.S. Fuller ian Prof. 

 Chem. Royal Institution^ Corr. Memh. Royal and Imp. Acadd. 

 of Sciences, Paris, Petershurgh, Florence, Copenhagen, Ber- 

 lin, S^c. Sfc. 



[Continued from p. 1 82.] 



% ii. On the Intensity necessary for Electrolyzation. 



966. TT became requisite, for the comprehension of many 

 -■- of the conditions attending voltaic action, to deter- 

 mine positively, if possible, whether electrolytes could resist 

 the action of an electric current if beneath a certain intensity? 

 whether the intensity at which the current ceased to act would 

 be the same for all bodies ? and also whether the electrolytes 

 thus resisting decomposition would conduct the electric cur- 

 rent as a metal does, after they ceased to conduct as electro- 

 lytes, or would act as perfect insulators ? 



967. It was evident from the experiments described (904. 

 906.) that different bodies were decomposed with very dif- 

 ferent facilities, and apparently that they required for their 

 decomposition currents of different intensities, resisting some, 

 but giving way to other^. But it was needful, by very care- 

 ful and express experiments, to determine whether a current 



