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XIV. Experimental Researches in Electricity . — Tenth Series. By Michael Faraday 

 D.C.L. F.R.S. Fullerian Prof. Chem. Royal Institution, Corr. Memh. Royal and 

 Imp. Acadd. of Sciences, Paris, Petershurgh, Florence, Copenhagen, Berlin, S^c. 8sc. 



Received June 16, — Read June 18, 1835. 



§ 16. On an improved form of the Voltaic Battery. § 17. Some practical 

 results respecting the construction and use of the Foltaic Battery. 



1119. X HAVE lately had occasion to examine the voltaic trough practically, with 

 a view to improvements in its construction and use ; and though I do not pretend 

 that the results have anything like the importance which attaches to the discovery 

 of a new law or principle, I still think they are valuable, and may therefore, if briefly 

 told, and in connexion with former papers, be worthy the approbation of the Royal 

 Society. 



§ 16. On an improved form of the Voltaic Battery. 



1 120. In a simple voltaic circuit (and the same is true of the battery) the chemical 

 forces which, during their activity, give power to the instrument, are generally divided 

 into two portions ; the one of these is exerted locally, whilst the other is transferred 

 round the circle (947- 996.) ; the latter constitutes the electric current of the instru- 

 ment, whilst the former is altogether lost or wasted. The ratio of these two portions 

 of power may be varied to a great extent by the influence of circumstances : thus, in a 

 battery not closed, all the action is local ; in one of the ordinary construction, much 

 is in circulation when the extremities are in communication ; and in the perfect one, 

 which I have described (1001.), all the chemical power circulates and becomes elec- 

 tricity. By referring to the quantity of zinc dissolved from the plates (865. 1126.), 

 and the quantity of decomposition effected in the volta-electrometer (711. 1126.) or 

 elsewhere, the proportions of the local and transferred actions under any particular 

 circumstances can be ascertained, and the efficacy of the voltaic arrangement, or the 

 waste of chemical power at its zinc plates, be accurately determined. 



1121. If a voltaic battery were constructed of zinc and platina, the latter metal 

 surrounding the former, as in the double copper arrangement, and the whole being 

 excited by dilute sulphuric acid, then no insulating divisions of glass, porcelain, or 

 air would be required between the contiguous platina surfaces ; and, provided these 

 did not touch metallically, the same acid which, being between the zinc and platina, 

 would excite the battery ijito powerful action, would, between the two surfaces of 



MDCCCXXXV. 2 M 



