THE 

 LONDON, EDINBURGH and DUBLIN 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



[FOURTH SERIES.] 



JANUARY 1857. 



I. On the Development of Dynamic Electricity by the Immersion 

 of unequally Heated Metals in Liquids. By G. Gore, Esq.* 



1. TT has long been known that electric currents are produced 

 J- when two perfectly similar pieces of metal are connected 

 with a galvanometer and their free ends simultaneously immersed 

 in two parts of a conducting liquid of different temperatures, or 

 when they are immersed in a conducting liquid of uniform tem- 

 perature, and one of the pieces maintained at a different tempe- 

 rature from the other ; and the currents so produced have been 

 ascribed sometimes to chemical causes, and sometimes to the 

 ordinary thermo-electric properties of the metals. 



2. In order to ascertain more clearly the conditions under 

 which those currents are developed, I have been induced to make 

 some experiments upon the subject. The earliest questions 

 which occurred to my mind were, — 1st, Are the currents in such 

 cases due, or partly due, to any thermo-electric properties of the 

 liquids similar to those of single metals ? 2ndly, Are they due, or 

 partly due, to the usual thermo-electric property of the metals 

 employed ? or 3rdly, Arc they due, or partly due, to chemical 

 action developed at the surfaces of mutual contact of the metal 

 and liquid by the application of heat ? 



On THEnMO-ELECTuic Action of the Liquid as a cause of the 

 Currents. 



3. We know that if two pieces of copper, or any other kind 

 of metal, are taken and connected with a galvanometer, and the 

 free extremity of one of the pieces is heated and then suddenly 

 applied to the free and cold end of the other, a feeble current of 



* Coininuniciited by the Author. 

 Phil. May. S. 4. Vol. 13. No. 83. Jan. 185r. B 



