on the Construction of a Voltaic Jpparatus, 27 



Exp. 2. Three feet of the same wire were heated to a 

 fright red, visible by strong day-light. 



Exp. 3. Four feet of ihe same wire were rendered very 

 hot ; but not perceptibly red by day-light. In the dark, it 

 would pru,>ably have appeared reil throughout. 



Exp. 4. Charcoal burnt with intense brilliancy. 



Exp. 5. On iron wire, of about -Vth of an inch in diame- 

 ter, the effect was strikingly feeble. It barely fused ten 

 inches, and had not power to ignite three feet. 



Exp. 6. Imperfect conductors were next submitted to the 

 action of the battery, and barytes, mixed with the red ox- 

 ide of mercury, and made into a paste with pipe clay and 

 water, was placed in the circuit; but neither on this nor on 

 any other similar substance was the slightest effect produced. 



Exp. 7. The gold leaves of the electrometer were not 

 affected. 



Exp, 8. When the cuticle was dry, no shock was given 

 by this battery, and even though the skin was wet, it was 

 scarcely perceptible. 



Before I offer any observations on the inferences to he 

 drawn from these experiments, I shall mention some others, 

 performed, for the sake of comparison, with the foregoing, 

 with an apparatus very different in size and number of plates 

 from the one just described. 



This second battery was precisely the Couronne des Tasses 

 ofSig. Volta, consisting of two hundred pairs of plates, 

 each about two inches square, placed in half pint pots of 

 coprmion queen's ware, and made active by some of the 

 liquor used in exciting the large battery, to which was added 

 a fresh portion of sulphuric acid, equal to about a quarter of 

 a pint to a gallon. 



To state as shortly as possible the effects produced by thia 

 battery : 



Experiment 1 . It decomposed potash and barytes readily. 



Exp, 2. It produced the metallization of ammonia with 

 great facility. 



Exp. 3. It ignited charcoal vividly. 

 Exp. 4. It caused considerable divergence of the gold 

 leaves of the eleclronieier. 



Exp^. 



