1822.] Dr. Hare’s improved Deflagrator. 125 
“Jt cannot be doubted, notwithstanding your experiments, 
that there is a principle of action common to the various appa- 
ratus which you employed, and all other galvanic combinations. 
The effect of this principle of action, however, varies widely 
according to the number of the series, the size of the members 
severally, and the energy of the agents interposed. Towards 
the different extremes of these varieties are De Luc’s column 
apparently producing pure electricity, and one large galvanic 
pair, or calorimotor of two surfaces, producing, in appearance, 
only pure caloric. At different points between these are the 
series of Davy and Children; the one gigantic in number, the 
other in size. In the deflagrator we have another variety, which, 
with respect to size and number, is susceptible of endless 
variation. ; 
« It must be evident that no galvanic instrument where a fluid 
is employed could aid, or be aided by, the columns of De Luc or 
Zamboni. Nor could the influence of either be transmitted by 
the other. A calorimotor could not aid Davy’s great series ; 
nor could the latter act through a calorimotor.* Taking it for 
granted that there can be no oversight in your experiments, this 
incompatibility of exciting power must exist to a great degree 
under circumstances where it could hardly have been antici- 
pated. : 
“Were the fluid evolved by galvanic action purely electric; 
the effect of batteries of different sizes, when united in one 
circuit, ought not to be less than would be produced if the 
whole of the pairs were, of the smaller size. But if on the con- 
trary we suppose the voltaic fluid compounded of caloric, light, 
and electricity, so obviously collateral products of galvanic 
action, the ordinary voltaic series employed in your experi- 
ments may owe its efficacy more to electricity, and the defla- 
grator more to caloric. The peculiar potency of both may be 
arrested when they are joined, by the incompetency of either 
series to convey any other compound than that which it gene- 
rates. The supply of caloric from the ordinary series may be 
too small, that of electricity too large, and vice versa. It 
might be expected that each would supply the deficiency of the 
other; but it is well known that many principles will combine 
only when they are nascent. The power of my large deflagrator 
in producing decomposition is certainly very disproportional to 
its power of evolving heat and light. When wires proceeding | 
from the poles were placed very near each other under water, it 
was rapidly decomposed; but when severally introduced ito 
the open ends of an inverted syphon, filled with that fluid, little 
action took place. Potash is deflagrated, and the rosy hue of 
the flame indicates a decomposition ; still, however, the volatili- 
zation of the whole mass,‘and the intense ignition of the metallic 
* Unless as an inert metallic mass. 
