416, Hare’s Calorimoter. 
‘posed agents lessened, the ratio of the electrical effects to 
‘those of heat had increased ; till in De Luc’s column they had 
become completely predominant; and, on the other hand, 
when the pairs were made larger and fewer (as in Children’s 
apparatus) the calorific influence had gained the ascendancy. 
d was led to go farther in this way, and to examine whether 
one pair of plates of enormous size, or what might be equiv- 
‘alent thereto, would not exhibit heat more purely, and demon- 
strate it, equally with the electric fluid, a primary product of 
‘Galvanic combinations. The elementary battery “of Wollas- 
‘ton, though productive of an evanescent ignition, was too mi- 
Mute to allow him to make the observations which I had in 
view. 
Twenty copper and twenty zinc plates, about nineteen 
inches square, were supported vertically in a frame, the dif- 
ferent metals alternating at one half inch distance from each — 
“other. 1 the plates of the same kind of metal were soldered 
to a common slip, so that each set of homogeneous plates 
_ formed one continuous metallic superficies. When the cop- 
per and zinc surfaces, thus formed, are united by an inter- 
‘vening wire, and the whole immerged in an acid, or aceto- 
saline solution, in a vessel devoid of partitions, the wire be- 
comes intensely ignited; and when hydrogen is liberated it 
usually takes fire, producing a very beautiful undulating, or 
corruscating flame. 
I'am confident, that if Volta and the other investigators of 
Galvanism, instead of multiplying the pairs of Galvanic plates, 
had sought to increase the effect by enlarging one pair as i 
have done, (for I consider the copper and zine surfaces as 
‘reduced to two by the connexion) the apparatus would have 
been considered as presentihg a new mode of evolving heat, as 
a primary effect independently of electrical influence. There 
‘is no other indication of electricity when wires from the two 
surfaces touch the tongue, than a slight taste, such as is ex- 
cited by small pieces of zinc and silver laid on it and under it, 
and brought into contact with each other. 
It was with a view of examining the effects of the proximity 
and alternation in the heterogeneous plates that I had them 
