26 HISTORY OF GALVANISM. 



which the scientific world was laid by the discovery 

 of Volta; but, at the same time, it must be ad- 

 mitted, on the other hand, that the benefit of the 

 discovery has been obtained by others.* 



No sooner was the discovery of the galvanic 

 pile announced, than the English experimentalists 

 began their operations w r ith it, and almost at the 

 first trial of its effects made some important and 

 interesting observations. Sir Joseph Banks, on 

 the receipt of the information, having communicated 

 an account of it to his scientific friends, a pile was 



Nicholson's formed by Messrs. Nicholson and Carlisle, with 

 - which tJiey began to repeat the experiments of 

 olta They arranged the su b s tances in the order 

 of silver, zinc, fluid ; silver, zinc, fluid, &c. : an 

 arrangement which it is necessary to attend to, 

 in speaking of what have been called the silver 

 and zinc ends of the apparatus. Volta, it appears, 

 had satisfied himself that the action of the pile 

 was electrical, because it produced the shock ; 



Discovered but Messrs. Nicholson and Carlise applied to it 



-States" t ne instrument caUed the revolving doubler, f and 

 by this means decidedly proved it to be the case : 

 they found, that the silver end was in the negative 

 and the zinc end in the positive state of electricity. 



Decompo- In the course of the experiments, a part of the 

 circuit between the upper and lower ends of the 



P^ e was f rme( i by water, and it was observed that 

 cuit - there was a disengagement of gas at the part 



* Phil. Trans, for 1800. f Phil* Trans, for 1788. 



