142 Chemical Action by Electrical Induction, fyc. 



Art. XIII. — Chemical Action and Decomposition of Water, produ- 

 ced by Electrical Induction. Communicated by M. Hachette to 

 the Academy of Sciences, Oct. 8, 1832. Translated and condens- 

 ed from the Annales de Chim. et de Phys., Sept., 1832 ; by Oliver 

 P. Hubbard, Assistant in tlie Chemical Department in Yale 

 College. 



Mr. Faraday remarks, in his memoir of Nov. 24, 1831, that he 

 failed to produce chemical effects by the electrical currents of induc- 

 tion, and expresses the belief that they may be obtained by more pow- 

 erful magnets than he used, and that future researches will identify 

 the effects of the ordinary electrical currents and those of induction. 



M. Pixii has verified this opinion by the following experiment ; 

 he mounted a horse shoe magnet upon the end of the shaft of a lathe 

 and, by a treadle, caused it to revolve with its faces parallel to those 

 of a piece of soft iron bent into the form of a horse shoe, and wound 

 with a copper wire, covered with silk, the two ends of which commu- 

 nicated with two other metallic wires that passed through the bottom 

 of a vessel filled with water, and each wire rose into a glass tube shaped 

 like an inverted bell (cloche.) The water in the vase and in the 

 tubes formed but one mass. 



When the magnet turns, it acts by induction upon the soft magne- 

 tized iron, upon the silk bound wire, and upon the two wires placed 

 in the tubes. 



Water is decomposed at the extremines of the latter wires, and the 

 two gases, oxygen and hydrogen, rise to the top of each tube. 



This experiment proves, 1.- that the simultaneous action of the 

 positive and negative electricities is not necessary to the chemical 

 decomposition of water, and 2. that an action, the intermission of 

 which is only instantaneous, is sufficient to produce this decomposition. 



These conclusions accord with previous observations made upon 

 the decomposition of water by the Voltaic pile. 



This decomposition takes place, although the moist or fluid ele- 

 ments of the pile differ in their conducting powers. 



It is conceived, therefore, that the water opposes a force of inertia 

 to the electrical action which tends to produce decomposition, and 

 that to overcome this inertia, a current of electricity, uninterrupted 

 to its source, must act upon the water a certain time before the fluid 

 is decomposed. The electrical currents of induction appear to act 

 like the constant electrical currents of the Voltaic pile, the metallic 

 plates of which are separated by an imperfect fluid conductor. In 



