116 Hare'^s jVew Galvanic Ajfjjaratus^ Theory, fyc. 



controvertible support to the objections he made to the idea, 

 that the galvanic fluid is pure electricity, when extricated 

 by the voltaic pile in its usual form. It showed that a pile 

 really producing pure electricity, is devoid of the chemical 

 power of galvanism. 



We are informed by Sir H. Davy, that when charcoal 

 points in connection with the poles of the magnificent appa- 

 ratus with which he operated, were first brought nearly into 

 contact, and then withdrawn four inches apart, there was a 

 heated arch formed between them in which such non-con- 

 ducting substances as quartz were fused. I believe it im- 

 possible to fuse electrics by mechanical electricity. If op- 

 posing its passage they may be broken, and if conductors 

 near them be ignited, they may be acted on by those ignited 

 conductors as if otherwise heated ; but I will venture to 

 predict, that the slightest glass fibre will not enter into fu- 

 sion, by being placed in a current from the largest machine 

 or electrical battery. 



I am induced to believe, that we must consider light, as 

 vv^ell as heat, an ingredient in the galvanic fluid ; and think 

 it possible, that, being necessary to vitality in animals, as 

 well as vegetables, the electric fluid may be the vehicle of 

 its distribution. 



I will take this opportunity of stating, that the heat evol- 

 ved by one galvanic pair has been found by the experi- 

 ments which 1 instituted, to increase in quantity, but to di- 

 minish in intensity, as the size of the surfaces may be en- 

 larged. Apair coniaining about fifty square feet -of each met- 

 al, will not fuse platina, nor deflagrate iron, however small 

 may be the wire employed; for the heat produced in metallic 

 wires is not improved by a reduction in their size beyond a 

 certain point. Yet the metals abovementioned, are easily 

 fused or deflagrated by smaller pairs, which would have no 

 perceptible influence on masses that might be sensibly igni- 

 ted by larger pairs.-— These characteristics were fully de- 

 monstrated, not only by my own apparatus, but by those con- 

 structed by Messrs. Wetherill and Peale, and which are larg- 

 er, but less capable of exciting intense ignition. Mr. Peale's 

 apparatus contained nearly seventy square feet, Mr. Weth- 

 erill's nearly one hundred, in the form of concentric coils, 

 yet neither could produce a heat above redness on the small- 

 est v.iic?. At my suggestion, Mr. Peale separated the two 



