40 Experiments with the Elementary Voltaic Battery. 
The amounts of deflection here shown, are widely different from 
what should have been expected in conformity with the law stated, 
which would have required a ratio of 3 to 2 in the numbers obtain- 
ed in the first experiment, and of 1 to 3, in all those which follow. 
As far as our observations have extended the increase of effect pro- 
duced by approximating the plates is so trifling as to render atten- 
tion to it of little account in its practical application, although phi- 
losophically interesting. 
. On the relative position of the metals.—It now becomes an 
enquiry of some interest to ascertain experimentally the best possi- 
ble relative position of the plates, to secure the greatest amount of 
electrical effect. 
We accordingly varied the position of the metals to each other 
so as to present them parallel, at right angles, above or below each 
other, and in the same plane, edge to edge, and in all these positions 
we very unexpectedly found that the deflecting power was uniform, 
so long as the mean distance between the plates was preserved. 
Hence it appears that the ordinary method of arranging the metals 
in direct apposition, possesses no other advantage than that which 
may result from practical convenience, and in the facility of more 
closely approximating them. 
In making this statement, we are not withont the hope that its 
novelty will elicit the attention of experimenters in some degree 
proportionate to the interest with which it has been regarded by us. 
13. On the deflecting power produced by different menstrua.— 
Although it is a fact which has been repeatedly confirmed that the 
wer of voltaic arrangements, is augmented by increasing the 
strength of the solution in which the plates are immersed ; still as 
we are not aware of any detailed observations on the subject, we 
are induced to give the following. The relative proportions of acid 
and water given were estimated by weight, and the plates were con- 
stantly 4 sqr. inches each. 
‘Sulphuric acid 1 water 60 permanent deflection, 60° 
: c “6 l 30 oe a3 87 
“es 1 ee | 66 15 oe 66 105 
““c pees Brees te 74 ‘“c a3 135 
“ee ‘ec 1 & 3: : 
Muriatic acid 1 water 60 permanent deflection, 70° 
be “ec ee “cs e “ce 109 
« 
(73 “e Ps “cs 15 “cc 2 £88 143 
