MR. DANIELL ON VOLTAIC COMBINATIONS. 55 



The direction of the force through an electrolyte placed between a generating and 

 conducting surface of two metals, may, I conceive, be expressed in the very words 

 which you have employed to describe that of the direct inductive force in statical elec- 

 tricity. 



" It may be conceived to be exerted in lines between the two limiting conducting 

 surfaces, and is accompanied by a lateral or transverse force equivalent to a dilata- 

 tion or repulsion of these representative lines ; or the attractive force which exists 

 amongst the particles of the electrolyte (dielectric) in the direction of the current (in- 

 duction) is accompanied by a repulsive or diverging force in the transverse direction*." 



The proof of this is exactly of the same nature as that which you have brought for- 

 ward in the parallel instance of induction, namely, the turning round the corner of a 

 plate ; and I cannot but advert to the complete analogy of the case in which you 

 brought your carrier ball near to the middle of a flat disc of metal placed upon an 

 excited shell-lac cylinder when no charge was communicated, although one was ob- 

 tained at the edge of the disc ; and that of the deposition of a ring of precipitated 

 copper round the edge of the under surface of a brass plate while the centre was free 

 from it (fig. 1.). 



This " lateral tension of the lines of force on one another" is quite consistent with 

 their divergence from an active centre : may it not even be considered as the cause 

 of their radiation ? It is most particularly evidenced by the results of those experi- 

 ments, in which the immediate divergence of the force from the active centre was 

 prevented, by placing the latter in a glass tube, or by drawing it up above the ge- 

 neral level of the surrounding electrolyte. In these instances the first impulse must 

 have been propagated in a perpendicular direction ; but the instant it was at liberty 

 to influence the general mass, the molecules of the latter were thrown into the 

 polarized state, and the direction of the force opened out as from a centre. 



On the other hand, the same " repulsive force in a transverse direction" must be 

 opposed to the convergence of the lines from an active sphere towards an interior con- 

 ducting point, when the force is not stationary but current : may not this opposition 

 account for the reduced action of a sphere of zinc upon a ball of copper ? The dif- 

 ference of the statical induction and the current induction is, that in the former the 

 force is not progressive, while in the latter it is in a state of perpetual flux ; the state 

 of polarity, however, and of tension, is maintained in both. 



The transfer of the elements of the electrolyte in opposite directions under that pe- 

 culiar molecular arrangement or polarity, " which is the first step in all electrolyza- 

 tion," is quite compatible with their unequal distribution upon the limiting conduct- 

 ing surfaces, according to the varying relations of their dimensions and distances, as 

 was evidenced by the unequal precipitation of the reduced copper in several of the 

 preceding instances ; but no correspondent inequality of the force can exist upon the 

 surface of the conductors themselves, upon all parts of which it can instantaneously 

 distribute itself with comparative facility. 



* Philosophical Transactions, 1838, p. 37. 



