JEdinlurgk Institute. 309 



l^een occnpied in investigations of this nature has been 

 chiefly limited to professional inquirers. 



The apparatus of which I am now to give a short de- 

 scription appears to me to be so simple in its construction, 

 and so easy in its application, that it may, in a great mea- 

 sure, obviate these incuiiveniences. li is the invention of 

 Mr. Jackson, my assistant, who l\as long employed it for 

 the purpose of afiplying Galvanism medically. The pairs 

 of plates of which this battery is composed are carefully 

 fused toccthcr so as to form one solid mass of metal, and 

 are therefore united in every p()int of their surfaces. This 

 last circumstance is generady supposed to add greatly to the 

 strength of the battery, and perhaps it serves to increase the 

 power of the battery of Mr. Jackson's construction. The 

 pairs of plates thus prepared are arranged horizontally and 

 alternately with pieces of cloth moistened with the chemical 

 solution employed. A frame, which is also of very sim- 

 ple construction, is all the apparatus necessary to complete 

 the battery. This frame, whose length is to be accommo- 

 dated to the number of plates employed, has two glass rods 

 at the bottom, as an insulated support to the plates. At 

 each end of the frame there is an upright pillar, through 

 which passes a wire or small bar, which moves horizontally, 

 and is secured by a screw in the top of the pillar, when the 

 bar presses on the plates, to keep them in a vertical posi- 

 tion, and in close contact with the intervening moistened 

 cloths. The conducting wires are applied to the poles of 

 the battery in the usual way. 



The advantages of this battery over any oiher that has 

 yet been contived, will be snfficicntlv obvious to those 

 who arc much conversant with such pursuits ; it seems, 

 indeed, to unite the advanfai;;es of the simple consiruc'ion 

 of the pile uith the increased power obtained from the 

 trouErh, but is free from the unavoidable expense which 

 attends the operation of the latter. 



1. The first obvious advantage of a battery of this con- 

 struction is, thai it is more portable thnn any form of the 

 Galvanic trough, whether the pairs ol plate.s in the trough 

 be soldered together and cemented in it, or whether they be 

 moveable, according to the principle of the couronne de 

 tasses. 



2. Another obvious advantage of this apparatus is, that 

 the original expense is far inferior to that of those constructed 

 in any olh^r form. The materials of which the plates are 

 composed, and the labour of soldering each pan, constitute 

 Almost its only expense. A frame of the simplest cou- 



U S struction 



