56 Experhnenlx made hy the 



tus he adopted, M. Briignatelll having avoided the employ » 

 nient of every substance foreign to the water used in the ex- 

 periment, and to the metallic conductors, the results which 

 might be expected by his process coLild not any longer pre- 

 sent any cause for uncertainty. The Society consequently 

 decided upon following M. Brugnatelli"s process, in the ex- 

 periments they were about to make. Accordingly, on the 

 8th of May last, the class for physical inquiries of the So- 

 citty having a.ssf:mbled, they arranged their apparatus in the 

 following manner. 



They filled with distille<i water, proved by a Solution of 

 nitrate of silver, a tube of glass 60 millimetres in length* 

 and about J millimetres of interior diameter. A glass syphon 

 of about 5 millimetres of interior diameter, each of the 

 branches of which was 40 millimetres long, with a space 

 of ]5 millimetres between them, was also filled with the 

 same distilled water, and rested in such a manner that one 

 of its branches entered into the t-ibe and the other into a" 

 glass full of distilled water, placed near the tube at the di- 

 stance determined by the branches of the syphon. They 

 introduced into the tube a. gold w ire about one fourth of 

 a millimetre, or 0*97G, and into the glass a strip of very 

 thin tin foil brought as near as possible to the branch of the 

 syphon, which plunged into it. Every thing being thus 

 prepared, a pile was mounted, composed of one hundred 

 pair of square plates zinc and copper, SO millimetres surface 

 each (about three square inches), separated by pieces of 

 cloth, saturated with a strong solution of muriate of ammo- 

 nia. The communication was established by the gold wire 

 corresponding with the zinc pole, and by the strip of tin fojl 

 adjoining to the co])per pole. The activity of this pile was 

 soon displaycu, and was kept up about 60 hours, when it 

 ceased to all appearance ; the pile was dismounted, without 

 changing any thing in the rest of the apparatus, and another 

 was substituted for it, composed in the same manner, 

 but with 60 pair of plates only. The action of this second 

 pile was not entirely extinguished, when we thought it right 

 to stop the experiment, in order to examine the results. On 



• Ttie French millimetre is =■ -OSP-J? inch English. 



emptylrj 



