ON THE CONSERVATION OF FORCE 



213 



sides are fitted platinum wires, k, which are attached to 

 platinum plates, i and tu As soon as a galvanic current is 

 transmitted through the water by the platinum wires, k, you 

 see bubbles of gas ascend from the plates i and ii. These 

 bubbles are the two elements of water, hydrogen on the one 

 hand, and oxygen on the other. The gases emerge through 

 the tubes g and gi. If we wait until the upper part of the 

 vessels and the tubes have been filled with it, we can inflame 

 hydrogen at one side; it burns with a blue flame. If I 

 bring a glimmering spill near the mouth of the other tube, 

 it bursts into flame, just as happens with oxygen gas, in 



FIG. xox 



which the processes of combustion are far more intense 

 than in atmospheric air, where the oxygen mixed with nitro- 

 gen is only one-fifth of the whole volume. 



If I hold a glass flask filled with water over the hydrogen 

 flame, the water, newly formed in combustion, condenses 

 upon it. 



If a platinum wire be held in the almost non-luminous 

 flame, you see how intensely it is ignited; in a plentiful 

 current of a mixture of the gases, hydrogen and oxygen, 

 which have been liberated in the above experiment, the 

 almost infusible platinum might even be melted. The 



