260 



EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS. 



We may observe generally, in these experiments, that the 

 hydrogen evolved in the voltameter is somewhat more than 

 double the volume of the oxygen, and that a still extra 

 quantity of hydrogen is absorbed in the battery. With 

 regard to the excess of hydrogen in the voltameter, this, as 

 is well known to electricians, is always observable in the 

 electrolysis of water, and has been attributed by Faraday to 

 the more ready solubility of oxygen, and its tendency to form 

 oxygenated water ; * but we have in the above experiments a 

 still greater excess of hydrogen absorbed in the battery tubes. 

 This result previous experiments had led me to expect. In 

 one of these I found voltaic action produced by tubes charged 

 alternately with hydrogen and water, and attributed it to the 

 combination of hydrogen with the oxygen of atmospheric air 

 in solution.f Assuming for the moment this explanation to be 

 correct, in a gas battery charged with oxygen and hydrogen 

 we should have, upon completion of the circuit, three distinct 

 voltaic actions : First, the principal action occasioned by the 

 gases in the tubes reacting upon each other through the medium 

 of the electrolyte, i.e. reverting to fig. 4, an action in which the 

 portions of the platinum exposed to the gases / q, p f q' would 

 be the efficient plates. Secondly, an action between the 

 hydrogen at /' g[ and the air in solution in the neighbourhood 

 of the immersed portion of the plate, q, r ; this would add to 

 the general current, but would tend disproportionately to 

 diminish the hydrogen. Thirdly, a local action between the 



* Experimental Researches, 716, 717. 



t Phil. Mag,, Dec. 1842, p. 419, Exp. u. 



