362 NOTICES OF THE MEETINGS + [Feb. 6, 
if then this metal can be adventitiously cooled, we should have the 
two currents co-operating, instead of conflicting ; and so experiment 
proved, for by using a capsule of platinum filled with water in the 
full flame, and a coil or sheet of platinum foil at the base, a very 
marked current resulted. By arranging in a row of jets worked by a 
large bellows a sheet of platinum foil placed just over the roots of 
the flames, and a trough of platinum foil filled with water just 
beyond the points of the blue cones, the large galvanometer of the 
Institution was deflected to 30° or 40°, so as to be easily visible to 
the audience ; the deflection being in the reverse direction upon re- 
versing the connections respectively with the plate and trongh. 
The same apparatus will also readily decompose iodide of potas- 
sium; iodine being evolved at the platinum point in connection 
with the trough. 
There was another apparatus on the table for arranging the flame 
battery as an intensity series. The direction of the current is from 
the points in the flame where combustion commences, to those where 
it concludes; it appears to be transmitted by a chain of chemical 
action taking place between these. Though speaking with some 
reserve on the theory of the phenomenon, Mr. Grove could at 
present see no objection to its being regarded as a current produced 
by chemical action; the platinum at the commencement of action 
representing the zinc which burns or combines with oxygen; that 
at the conclusion, representing the platinum, or the points where 
chemical action concludes, and a tendency to reduction or de- 
oxidation is manifested. The distinction being that the generative 
chemical action, instead of taking place, as in the ordinary battery 
only at the zinc surface, and being simply transmitted by the 
electrolyte, takes place throughout the intervening section of flame ; 
and thus, within certain limits, the intensity of the electricity 
increases with the distance of the plates, instead of decreasing as 
in the ordinary battery. [W. R. G.] 
GENERAL MONTHLY MERTING, 
Monday, February 6, 1854. 
WutramM Porg, Esa., M.A., F.R.S., Treasurer and Vice-President, 
in the Chair. 
Archibald Boyd, Esq. Matthew Noble, Esq. 
John Hall Gladstone, Esq., John Percy, M.D., F.R.S. 
Ph. D., F.R.S. Samuel Petrie, Esq. 
William Scurfield Grey, Esq. Michael Wills, Esq. 
Thomas Haig, Esq. 
were duly elected Members of the Royal Institution. 
