416 Hare's Calorimotor. 



posed agents lessened, the ratio of the electrical effects t© 

 those of heat had increased ; till in De Luc's column they had 

 become completely predominant ; and, on the other hand, 

 ■jyhen the pairs were made larger and fewer (as in Children's 

 apparatus) the calorific influence had gained the ascendancy. 

 I was led to go farther in this way, and to examine whether 

 one pair of plates of enormous size, or what might be equiva- 

 lent thereto, would not exhibit heat more purely, and demon- 

 strate it, equally with the electric fluid, a primary product of 

 Galvanic combinations. The elementary battery of Wollas- 

 ton, though productive of an evanescent ignition, was too mi- 

 nute to allow him to make the observations which I had in 

 view. 



Twenty copper and twenty zinc plates, about nineteen 

 inches square, were supported vertically in a frame, the dif- 

 ferent metals alternating at one half inch distance from each 

 other. All the plates of the same kind of metal were soldered 

 to a common slip, so that each set of homogeneous plates 

 formed one continuous metallic superficies. When' the cop- 

 per and zinc surfaces, thus formed, are united by an inter- 

 vening wire, and the whole immerged in an acid, or aceto- 

 saline solution, in a vessel devoid of partitions, the wire be- 

 comes intensely ignited ; and when hydrogen is liberated it 

 usually takes fire, producing a very beautiful undulating, or 

 Gorruscating flame. 



I am confident, that if Volta and the other investigators of 

 Galvanism, instead of multiplying the pairs of Galvanic plates, 

 had sought to increase the efiect by enlarging one pair as I 

 have done, (for 1 consider the copper and zinc surfaces as 

 reduced to two by the connexion) the apparatus would have 

 been considered as presenting a new mode of evolving heat, as 

 a primary effect independently of electrical influence. There 

 is no other indication of electricity when wires from the two 

 surfaces touch the tongue, than a slight taste, such as is ex- 

 cited by small pieces of zinc and silver laid on it and under it, 

 and brought into contact with each other. 



It was with a view of examining the effects of the proximity 

 and alternation in the heterogeneous plates that I had them 



