! 
ELECTRICITY OF THE FLAMES OF HYDROGEN, ETC. 385 
depend therefore on the possession, by this gas, of higher heat-trans- 
mitting powers, but solely on its greater power of conduction. 
“18. This striking conductibility affords an additional proof of 
the analogy of hydrogen to the metals. 
“19. Hydrogen also conducts electricity better than other gases. 
r —_— 
ON THE ELECTRICITY OF THE FLAMES OF HYDROGEN 
AND ALCOHOL. 
BY M. MATEUCOI, 
(Translated from the Annales de Chimie et de Physique. Mars, 1861.) 
Tt has been generally admitted, hitherto, that the electrical mani- 
festations discovered by M. Pouillet in the flame of hydrogen, depend 
on the chemical phenomena of combustion. Subsequently to M.. 
Pouillet’s researches, I shewed the analogy which exists between 
these electrical phenomena and the fact that a voltaic couple may be 
obtained by the immersion in water of two strips of platinum, one of 
which has been (or is) in contact with hydrogen, and the other with 
oxygen. 
More lately, M. Hankel has made some interesting experiments 
on the same subject, but these, I should observe, are only known to 
me by an extract given in the Annales de Chimie, by M. Verdet. 
According to the latter, the experiments of M. Hankel show clearly 
that the chemical reactions which take place in the flame, go for 
nothing in the production of the electricty observed therein. This 
- conclusion, however, does not appear to be sufficiently proved by the 
experiments cited in the extract, and it is contradicted, moreover, by 
an apparently decisive experiment of my own, to which I now beg to. 
recal attention. This experiment was made some time ago, but I 
have subsequently verified it by repetition under different conditions. 
It is made with a galvanometer of 24,000 coils, the ends of which 
consist of two platinum wires terminating in spirals. The homo- 
geneity of the wires is secured by plunging them into distilled water. 
They are then suffered to dry in the air, and one is inserted into. 
the central or obscure portion of a hydrogen (or alcohol) flame, 
whilst the other is placed at the point of the flame itself. A current. 
