36 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 
In the work that led up to these decisive results, Faraday had made many 
experiments on the chemical action produced by a current. In one of 
them he placed one end of a long piece of litmus paper moistened with 
sodium sulphate in contact with an electrical machine, while the other 
end was held opposite to the discharging points. On turning the machine 
Faraday saw that decomposition took place, the paper becoming red 
‘ where the positive electricity entered from the air.’ This proved to him 
that the decomposition was not dependent on the presence of metallic 
poles in the solution, and on September 6 he wrote in his note-book, 
“Hence it would seem that it is not a mere repulsion of the alkali and 
attraction of the acid by the positive pole, etc. etc., but that as the current 
of electricity passes whether by metallic poles or not the elementary 
particles arrange themselves and that the alkali goes as far as it can 
with the current in one direction and the acid in the other. The metallic 
poles used appear to be mere terminations of the decomposable 
substance.’ 
‘The effects of decomposition would seem rather to depend upon a 
relief of the chemical affinity in one direction and an exaltation of it on 
the other rather than to direct attraction and repulsions of the poles.’ 
Here we see the germ of Faraday’s ideas on the nature of electrolysis. 
In October and November only two days were spent on electrical 
experiments, and the paper on ‘ The Identity of Electricities’ was not 
communicated to the Royal Society until December 10, an unusually long 
delay for Faraday. He was now convinced, it is true on rather slender 
evidence, that the amount of electro-chemical decomposition is a measure 
of the quantity of electricity, and the paper contains a statement of his 
First Law of Electrolysis. After describing the experiments with 
potassium iodide paper, he says, ‘It also follows that for this case of 
electro-chemical decomposition, and it is probable for all cases, that the 
chemical power, like the magnetic force, is in direct proportion to the 
absolute quantity of electricity which passes.’ 
On December 24 he wrote, ‘Can an electric current voltaic or not 
decompose a solid body, ice. etc. etc. If it can does it give structure at 
the time. If it cannot what would fused gum, lac, wax, etc.’ A cold 
spell at the end of January enabled him to put this to the test, and he 
found that while ice would not conduct a voltaic current, conduction 
occurred immediately the ice melted. ‘If ice will not conduct is it 
because it cannot decompose ? ’ 
This led Faraday to examine the conductivity in the fused state of a 
number of substances which are solid at ordinary temperatures, and to 
study the products formed during electrolysis. It was a new field for 
him and he showed his usual experimental skill in devising simple methods 
for working at high temperatures, including even the use of the oxy- 
hydrogen blowpipe. He found that a number of substances resembled 
water in being insulators in the solid state and becoming good conductors 
if fused, when they were decomposed by the current, but that this 
phenomenon was by no means universal. He thus arrived at no general 
conclusion, but the experience he gained in working with fused salts was 
to prove invaluable later in the year in his work on electro-chemical 
equivalents. The experiments were finished on April 22, and on April 24 
