16 



REPORT — 1855. 



glass tops ; P are the platinum plates, ^ inch wide, doubled lengthways into a 

 U-shape, and divided in the middle through a part of their length ; the connexions S 



Fig. 2. 



are silver wires passed through the platinum, and attached to it at D by the blow- 

 pipe without any solder. It would economize room to crease the platinum into 

 short zigzags. 



The battery, as here described, supposes the use of hydrogen and atmospheric air, 

 but it may be easily modified for two gases without altering the cells or the plates, 

 by the addition of tubes at E, similar to B, in communication with a supply of oxygen 

 from below. 



The advantages of this arrangement over Grove's are, cheapness of construction, 

 the absence of connexions by mercury or binding screws, the facility for removing 

 the plates to clean, &c., and the very great economy in the platinum ; for whereas in 

 Grove's battery a plate of 4 inches long and ^ inch broad would, according to his 

 theory of its action, have but 1 inch of action, by the proposed arrangement it 

 would have sixteen times that amount. 



The author adds a suggestion with regard to apparatus of a totally different kind, 

 such as condensers, multipliers, &c., used in static electricity, where a perfectly flat 

 and smooth conducting surface is required ; plate-glass gilded is generally used ; 

 the substitute he would propose is common slate ; it is cheaper, stronger, and far 

 more easily polished, shaped, and gilded ; perhaps rubbing it over with good 

 plumbago would render it a sufficiently perfect conductor; this is the plan adopted 

 in an electroscope described in the ' Chemist' for August. 



On certain curious Motions observable on the Surfaces of Wine and other 

 Alcoholic Liquors. By James Thomson, CE.^ Belfast. 



The phsenomena of capillary attraction in liquids (Mr. Thomson stated) are ac- 

 counted for according to the generally received theory of Dr. Young, by the existence 

 of forces equivalent to a tension of the surface of the liquid, uniform in all directions, 

 and independent of the form of the surface. The tensile force is not the same in dif- 

 ferent liquids. Thus it is found to be much less in alcohol than in water. This fact 

 affords an explanation of several very curious motions observable, undervarious circum- 

 stances, at the surfaces of alcoholic liquors. One part of these phenomena is, that 

 if, in the middle of the surface of a glass of water, a small quantity of alcohol, or 

 strong spirituous liquor, be gently introduced, a rapid rushing of the surface is found 

 to occur outwards from the place where the spirit is introduced. It is made more 

 apparent if fine powder be dusted on the surface of the water. Another part of the 

 phienomena is, that if the sides of the vessel be wet with water above the general 

 level surface of the water, and if the spirit be introduced in sufficient quantity in the 

 middle of the vessel, or if it be introduced near the side, the fluid is even seen to 

 ascend the inside of the glass until it accumulates in some places to such an extent 

 that its weight preponderates, and it falls down again. The manner in which Mr. 

 Thomson explains these two parts of the phsenomena is, that the more watery por- 

 tions of the entire surface, having more tension than those which are more alcoholic, 

 drag the latter briskly away, sometimes even so as to form a horizontal ring of liquid 

 high up round the interior of the vessel, and thicker than that by which the interior 

 of the vessel was wet. Then the tendency is for the various parts of this ring or 

 line to run together to those parts which happen to be most watery, and so there 

 is no stable equilibrium, for the parts to which the various portions of the liquid 



