396 EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS. 



I know of no better theory to account for these results 

 than that which Pouillet applied to the effects on the con- 

 denser, viz. that it is the result of combustion, the platinum 

 at the commencement of chemical action, or where the 

 elements are entering into combination, being as the zinc of 

 the voltaic battery ; and that at the termination of combus- 

 tion, or at the points where the chemical action is completed, 

 being as the platinum of the voltaic combination. 



Although there is a distinct thermo-current produced by 

 the contact of two unequally heated bodies with flame, yet 

 when we see, as in the above experiments, a marked current, 

 in a contrary direction to, and overcoming that which is ex- 

 cited by the thermo-current in the flame, and also that at the 

 points of junction of the wires away from the flame, I see no 

 means of viewing the resulting current as a thermo current. 

 The blowpipe flame, from its definiteness of direction, brings 

 out most distinctly this current ; in other flames, from the 

 more confused circulation of the heated and burning particles, 

 the results are less significant ; and the various flame-currents 

 counteracting each other, the thermic current obtains a pre- 

 dominance. 



The current from the blowpipe flame, when the platinum 

 in the full flame is cooled, is so marked, that I have little 

 doubt, by attaching to a powerful pair of bellows a tube from 

 which a row of jets proceeds, and alternating pairs of platinum 

 in flames urged by the jets, a flame-battery might be con- 

 structed which would produce chemical decomposition and all 

 the usual effects of the voltaic pile.* 



ON A METHOD OF INCREASING CERTAIN EFFECTS 

 OF INDUCED ELECTRICITY. 



Phil. Mag., Jan. 1855. 



IN the course of last year I observed that, by connecting the 

 coatings of a Leyden phial with the extremities of the secon- 



* This was subsequently done, and the effects of the flame battery shown 

 at an evening meeting of the Royal Institution. See Proceedings of the Royal 

 Institution^ Feb. 3, 1854. 



