Harems JVeiv Galvanic Apparatus^ Theory, <^c. 105 



Art. XVIII. — A Memoir on some new Modifications of 

 Galvanic Apparatus, with Observations in support of his 

 JVeio Theory of Galvanism. By R. Hare, M. D. Pro-- 

 fessor of Chemistry in the University of P ennsylvania. 



From a printed paper, communicated (o the Editor, by tlie author, and 

 copied from the Philadelphia Medical Journal.) 



I HAD observed that the ignition produced by one or two 

 galvanic pairs attained its highest intensity, almost as soon 

 as they were covered by the acid used to excite them, and 

 ceased soon afterwards ; although the action of the acid 

 should have increased during the interim. I had also re- 

 marked in using an apparatus of three hundred pairs of 

 small plates, that a platina wire, No. 16, placed in the 

 circuit; was fused in consequence of a construction which 

 enabled me to plunge them all nearly at the same time. It 

 was therefore conceived, that the maximum of effect in 

 voltaic apparatus of extensive series had never been attain- 

 ed. The plates are generally arranged in distinct troughs 

 rarely containing more than twenty pairs. Those of the 

 great apparatus of the Royal Institution, employed by Sir 

 H. Davy, had only ten pairs in each. There were one 

 hundred such to be successively placed in the acid, and the 

 whole connected ere the poles could act. Consequently 

 the effect which arises immediately after immersion, would 

 be lost in the troughs first arranged, before it could be pro- 

 duced in the last ; and no effort appears to have been made 

 to take advantage of this transient accumulation of power, 

 either in using that magnificent combination, or in any other 

 of which I have read. In order to observe the consequence 

 of simultaneous immersion with a series sufficiently nu- 

 merous to test the correctness of my expectations, a gal- 

 vanic apparatus of eighty concentric coils of copper and 

 zinc, was so suspended by a beam and levers, as that they 

 might be made to descend into, or rise out of the acid in 

 an instant. The zinc sheets were about nine inches by six, 

 the copper fourteen by six 5 more of this metal being ne- 

 cessary, as in every coil it was made to commence within 

 the zinc, and completely to surround it v.'ithout. The 

 sheets were coiled so as not to leave betwccp them an in- 



Vol. IIT.....Nc>. J. 14 



