44 



FARADAY 



about the room by means of these wires. This force is 

 produced by the battery behind me, to which, however, I 

 will not now refer more particularly; before we have done 

 we shall know more about this battery, but it must grow up 

 in our knowledge as we proceed. Now here (FiG. 24) is 

 a portion of water in this little vessel, C, and besides the 

 water there are two plates of the metal platinum, which 

 are connected with the wires (A and B) coming outside, 



FIG. 24 



and I want to examine that water, and the state and the 

 condition in which its particles are arranged. If I were to 

 apply heat to it you know what we should get; it would 

 assume the state of vapor, but it would nevertheless remain 

 water, and would return to the liquid state as soon as the 

 heat was removed. Now by means of these wires (which 

 are connected with the battery behind me, and come under 

 the floor and up through the table) we shall have a certain 

 amount of this new power at our disposal. Here you see 

 it is [causing the ends of the wires to touch] that is the 

 electric light we used yesterday, and by means of these wires 

 we can cause water to submit itself to this power; for the 

 moment I put them into metallic connection (at A and B) 

 you see the water boiling in that little vessel (C), and you 

 hear the bubbling of the gas that is going through the tube 

 (D). See how I am converting the water into vapor; and 

 if I take a little vessel (E), and fill it with water, and put 

 it into the trough over the end of th tube (D), there goes 



