( 159 ) 



On the Action of Voltaic Electricitij on Alcohol, Ether, and 

 Aqueous Solutions* By Arthuii Connell, Esq. F.R. S. E. 

 Communicated by the Author. 



I WAS led into the following investigations, from observing 

 that when alcohol, holding in solution a minute quantity of pure 

 potash, as ji^th part, was acted on by a small battery of fifty 

 pairs of two-inch plates, the poles employed being of platinum 

 foil, evident signs of decomposition were exhibited by the evolu- 

 tion of elastic fluid from the negative pole, whilst none appeared 

 at the positive. This experiment recalled to my recollection a 

 statement made a iew years ago by Dr Ritchie,f that when al- 

 cohol, not holding any substance in solution, was acted on by a 

 powerful battery, gas was given off at the negative pole, which 

 Dr Ritchie stated to be olefiant gas ; and the conclusion which 

 he drew was, that the alcohol had been resolved into water and 

 olefiant gas. I was therefore naturally led to conjecture, that 

 the gas liberated in my experiment might be olefiant gas ; but 

 on examining it, both by means of chlorine and in the usual 

 way in the voltaic eudiometer, it proved to be hydroo-en, mixed, 

 when collected from alcohol, in contact with atmospheric air, 

 with a variable proportion of the constituents of atmospheric 

 air, which had been held in solution by the liquid, but quite 

 pure when the alcohol was previously exposed to the vacuum 

 of an air-pump, and then acted on in a close tube. By placing 

 the foils side by side, as was done in this latter experiment, the 

 quantity of gas liberated was considerably increased. 



The same result was obtained whether alcohol, of sp. gr. 

 .830, or of .7928 at GQ" F., was employed. When 1 1 dram of 

 the latter alcohol, holding ^Jgth of potash in solution, was acted 

 on in a tube by 72 pairs of four inch plates, the platinum foil 

 poles being placed side by side, at a short distance from one 

 another, a cubic inch of hydrogen was obtained from the ne- 

 gative pole in less than ^th of an hour, and 9.h cubic inches 



• The above is an abstract of a paper read to the Royal Society of Edin- 

 burgh, 27th April in;i5, but not yet published, with some additional matter. 

 t rhil. Trans. 1832, p. 21!.'.. 



