3Q Miscellaneous Notices on Galvanic Results. 



perhaps, any which that gentleman had then a means of giving ; 

 and, as I find, from the defective information which has been 

 given of this particular discovery on the continent of Europe, that 

 M. De la Rive and others, have failed in reproducing the curious 

 phenomenon, it is possible that the American philosophers may 

 also fail from a like cause, were the particulars of manipulation 

 not made known to them. I will, therefore, for the information 

 of all the readers of your excellent Journal, give a brief historical 

 sketch of the whole business." 



" The battery consisted of a hundred and sixty white porce- 

 lain jars, each of the capacity of about two thirds of a pint, and 

 furnished with a hollow cylinder of sheet copper, and an interior 

 hollow cylinder of sheet zinc, the latter amalgamated, and in me- 

 tallic connexion with the copper of the next pot, &c. The cop- 

 per and zinc of each pot were separated from each other by a dia- 

 phragm of brown paper, (a disc, on the centre of which is placed 

 the centre of the base of the zinc cylinder, and the periphery 

 brought up to the upper end of the latter so as to form a bag 

 round the zinc,) which separates the solution of sulphate of cop- 

 per, which is placed outside, from the solution of common salt, 

 which is placed inside of it. Hence the copper is washed with 

 its sulphate solution, and the zinc with the muriate of soda solu- 

 tion. 



" One hundred of these metals and pots were furnished by Mr. 

 Gassiot, and the other sixty by Mr. Mason. The preparation of 

 a battery of this kind and extent is a great labor, as you will un- 

 derstand from the following particulars. Mr. Walker commenced 

 working at it between eight and nine in the morning; Mr. Mason 

 arrived about eleven in the forenoon, and immediately set to work 

 at it ; Mr. Gassiot commenced shortly afterwards, and it was not 

 ready for experiment till three in the afternoon, about an hour 

 and a half after I arrived at Mr. Gassiot's house. The plan of 

 dividing the battery into groups for the experiments on decompo- 

 sitions, was formed by Mr. Mason, who is a very skillful and neat 

 experimenter. At a previous meeting I was requested to provide 

 a catalogue of experiments, which I did ; but in consequence of 

 the great length of time occupied in the experiments on the de- 

 composition of water by the various forms of the battery, only a 

 few of them were attempted. As the decompositions are very 

 well described by Mr. Walker, it would be unnecessary to say 



