Experiments made by the Galvanic Society of Paris. 261 

 completely scraped and restored to their former polish. Si- 

 milar ones of new brass were made. With the interposition 

 of rounds of pasteboard not moistened, a vertical column 

 was formed of 49 pairs of disks, resting upon a larger plate 

 of brass, pierced with three holes in its edges, through 

 which were made to pass as many silk cords, intended to 

 keep the disks in their position. These cords were tied all 

 together at the top, and the whole column was then suspen- 

 ded from a hook. This pile, which M. Marechaux denomi- 

 nates the pendulous column, having been placed in com- 

 munication with the electro-micrometer, simplified upon 

 that of M. Marechaux, by M. Veau-Delaunay, it manifested 

 a tension * of 3G0 degrees, which we may be certain was 

 not the effect of atmospherical electricity, but truly that of 

 the Galvanic election. 



This first experiment was repeated and varied in different 

 manners. Rounds of blotting paper were substituted in the 

 room of those of pasteboard, to the number of four for 

 each, and no effect whatever was produced. Rounds of paste- 

 board dried in a stove were also made use of: the mean term 

 of attraction in several trials was 372°. With these same 

 rounds and only 25 pairs of disks, the attraction was 160°. 

 The column was afterwards tried with the same number of 

 pairs of metallic disks, but without the interposition of 

 rounds of pasteboard, and nothing was obtained. 



These first results satisfied the society that the fact an- 

 nounced by M. Marechaux was correct; but this Galvanic 

 action, by the pendulous column, could only be ascertained 

 by the assistance of an instrument of great sensibility, and 

 in quantities scarcely appreciable. It remains for the society 

 to ascertain the advantage which may be derived to the pro- 

 gress of Galvanism, by the employment of more powerful 

 means, and by the comparison of the effects produced with 

 piles kept in a stale of humidity, by means of saline solu- 



• Bv the word tension is meant the measure of the distance to which a 

 leaf of gold suspended to a vertical column Of copper is attracted towards an- 

 . horizontal column of the same metal, terminated by a ball, when the e 

 two columns arc in communication with the two poles of the pile. Each de- 

 gree of this measure of attraction represents an IS.OUOdth part of an inch. 



H 3 lions. 



