ALESSANDROVOLTA 137 



After having raised the pile to about 20 of these stages or triads 

 of plates, it will be already capable, not only of affecting Cavallo's 

 electrometer, assisted by the condenser, so as to raise it 10 or 15°, 

 charging it by a simple touching, so as to cause it to give a spark, 

 &c., as also to strike the fingers with which we touch the top or bot- 

 tom of the column, with several small snaps, the fingers being wetted 

 with water. But if to the 20 sets of triplets of the plates be added 

 20 or 30 more, disposed in the same order, the actions of the ex- 

 tended pile will be much stronger, and be felt through the arms up to 

 the shoulders ; and by continuing the touchings, the pains in the hands 

 become insupportable. 



M. Volta constructs and combines his apparatus in various ways 

 and forms, more or less powerful, convenient or amusing. One is 

 as follows (Fig. i, pi. 13,), which he calls a couronne de tosses. He 

 disposes in a row a number of cups of wood, or earth, or glass, or 

 any thing but metal, half filled with pure water, or salt water or lye; 

 these are all made to communicate in a kind of chain, by several 

 metallic arcs of which one arm or link, Aa, or only the extremity A, 

 immersed in one of the cups, is of copper, or of copper silvered, and 

 the other Z, immersed in the following cup, is of tin, or rather of 

 zinc, the other two being soldered together near the crown of the 

 arch. It is evident that a series of these cups, thus connected to- 

 gether, either in a straight or curved line, by the two metals and the 

 intermediate liquid, is similar to the pillar or pile before described, 

 and consequently will exhibit similar eiTects. Thus, to produce 

 commotion or sensation in the hands and arms, we need only dip one 

 hand into one of the cups and the finger of the other hand into 

 another cup, sufficiently far from the former; and the action will be 

 so much the stronger as the two cups are farther asunder, or have 

 the more intermediate cups ; and consequently the greatest by touch- 

 ing the first and the last in the chain. 



M. Volta concludes with various remarks and cautions in using 

 this instrument ; showing that it is perpetual in its virtue, renewing 

 its charge spontaneously, and serving most of the purposes of the 

 ordinary electrical machines, and even affecting and manifesting its 

 power by most of the human senses, viz. feeling, tasting, hearing, and 

 seeing. 



