46 FARADAY 



Anderson brought in another Ley den jar, which, however, 

 from some cause, would not ignite the gas. It was therefore 

 recharged, when the explosion took place in the desired 

 manner.] How beautifully we get our results when we are 

 right in our proceedings! It is not that Nature is wrong 

 when we make a mistake. Now I will lay this vessel (G) 

 down by my right hand, and you can examine it by-and- 

 by; there is not very much water flowing down, but there 

 is quite sufficient for you to see. 



Another wonderful thing about this mode of changing 

 the condition of the water is this: that we are able to get 

 the separate parts of which it is composed at a distance 

 the one from the other, and to examine them, and see what 

 they are like, and how many of them there are; and 

 for this purpose I have here some more water in a 

 slightly different apparatus to the former one (Fio. 25) 

 and if I place this in connection 

 with the wires of the battery (at 

 A, B), I shall get a similar decom- 

 position of the water at the two 

 platinum plates. Now I will put 

 this little tube (O) over there, and 

 that will collect the gas together 

 that comes from this side (A), 

 and this tube (H) will collect the 

 gas that comes from the other side 

 (B), and I think we shall soon 

 be able to see a difference. In this 

 apparatus the wires are a good way apart from each other, 

 and it now seems that each of them is capable of drawing off 

 particles from the water and sending them off, and you see 

 that one set of particles (H) is coming off twice as fast as 

 those collected in the other tube (O). Something is coming 

 out of the water there (at H) which burns [setting fire to the 

 gas]; but what comes out of the water here (at O), al- 

 though it will not burn, will support combustion very vigor- 

 ously. [The lecturer here placed a match with a glowing 

 tip in the gas, when it immediately rekindled.] 



Here, then, we have two things, neither of them being 

 water alone, but which we get out of the water. Water is 



