* 
Hare’s Calorimotor. 417 
cut into separate squares. By having them thus divided, I 
have been enabled to ascertain that when all of one kind of 
metal are ranged on one side of the frame, and all of the other 
kind on the other side of it, the effect is no greater than might 
be expected from one pair of plates. 
Volta, considering the changes consequent to his contriv- 
ance as the effect of a movement in the electric fluid, called 
the process electro-motion, and the plates producing it electro- 
motors. But the phenomena show that the plates, as I 
have arranged them, are calori-motors, or heat movers, 
and the effect calori-motion. That this is a new view of 
the subject, may be inferred from the following passage in 
Davy’s Elements. That great chemist observes,} “ When 
very small conducting surfaces are used for conveying very 
large quantities of electricity, they become ignited; and of the 
different conductors that have been compared, charcoal is 
most easily heated by electrical discharges,” next iron, platina, 
gold, then copper, and lastly, zinc. The phenomena of elec- 
trical ignition, whether taking place in gaseous, fluid, or solid 
bodies, always seem to be the result of a violent exertion of 
the electrical attractive and repellent powers, which may be 
connected with motions of the particles of the substances 
affected. That no subtile fluid, such as the matter of heat — 
has been imagined to be, can be discharged from these sub- 
stances, in consequence of the effect of the electricity, seems 
probable from the circumstance, that a wire of platina may 
be preserved in state of intense ignition in vacuo, by means 
of the Voltaic apparatus, for an unlimited time; and such a 
wire cannot be supposed to contain an inexbaustible quantity 
Po 
of subtile matter.” 
But I demand where are the repellent and attractive powers 
to which the ignition produced by the Calorimotor can be at- 
tributed? Besides, I would beg leave respectfully to inquire 
of this illustrious author, whence the necessity of considering 
the heat evolved under the circumstances alluded to as the 
effect of the electrical fluid; or why we may not as well sup- 
pose the latter to be excited by the heat? It is evident, as he 
* Th lusi drawn from t le by the electricity of the 
a 
Voltaic apparatus. 
