106 jDr. Harems Deflagrator and Calormotor. 



citing power must exist to a great degree, under circum- 

 stances where it could hardly have been anticipated. 



Were the fluid evolved by galvanic action purely elec- 

 tric, the effect of batteries of different sizes, when united 

 in one circuit, ought not to be less than would be produced 

 if the whole of the pairs were of the smaller size. But if 

 on the contrary, we suppose the voltaic fluid compounded 

 of Onloric, light and electricity, so obviously collateral 

 products oi galvanic action; the ordinary voltaic series, 

 employed in your experiments, may owe its efficacy more 

 Jto electricity — and the deflagrator more to caloric. The 

 peculiar potency oi both may be arrested when they are 

 joined, by the incompetency of either series to convey 

 any other compound than that which it generates. The 

 supply of caloric from the ordinary series may be too 

 gmall, that of electricity too large; and vice versa. It 

 might be expected that each would supply the deficiency 

 of the other; but it is well known that many principles 

 will combine only when they are nascent. The power of 

 my large deflagrator (described in letter II.) in producing 

 decomposition, is certainly very disproportional to its 

 power of evolving heat and light. When wires proceed- 

 mg from the poles were placed very near each otiier un- 

 der water, it was rapidly decomposed; but when severally 

 introduced into the open ends of an inverted syphon, filled 

 with that fluid, Httle action took place : Potash is de- 

 flagrated and the rosy hue of the flame indicates a decom- 

 position. Still however the volatilization of the whole mass, 

 and intense ignition of the metallic support, prove that the 

 calorific influence is greatly and peculiarly predominant. 



I fear that in my essays on galvanic theory, the possible 

 activity oflight, has been too much overlooked. 7^he cor- 

 puscular changes which have been traced to the distinctive 

 energies of this principle, are so few that we have all been 

 iQ the habit, erroneously perhaps, of viewing it as an inert 

 product in those changes, effected by caloric, electricity 

 and chemical action, which it most strikingly characterizes. 

 Yet reflecting on the prodigious intensity in which it has 

 been extricated bj the deflagrator, it seems wrong not to 

 suspect it of being an effective constituent of the galvanic 

 stream. Possibly its presence in varying proportions, may 

 be one reason of the incompatibility of the voltaic current 

 as generated under different circumstances, or by various 



