Biographical Notice of Alexander Volta. 6? 



it is more uniform. Every part of the cloth is equally expo- 

 sed to the operation, and the coloring matter detached from 

 the cloth, floats in the liquor below. 



This appears to me to determine the question which some 

 have raised, whether the coloring matter of linen is actual- 

 ly detached from the cloth, or is bleached upon it without 

 being detached 1 When we find that the loss of weight, in 

 the various methods of bleaching ranges from twenty to 

 thirty per cent. — and when we find the coloring matter sus- 

 pended in the liquor, and reducible by evaporation to a mu- 

 cus, it seems to me that there can be no doubt that the 

 coloring matter is removed — at any rate a large proportion 

 of it. The repeated experiments which I have made upon 

 a considerable scale in bleaching, clearly demonstrate the 

 utility of combining heat and motion. The action is direct, 

 immediate, and uniform. The strong affinity which unites 

 the coloring, the glutinous and the oleaginous matter to the 

 fibres of the hnen is weakened and rapidly overcome, and 

 no opportunity is afforded for their subsequent combination. 



By this method I have bleached Scotch drills in twelve 

 hours, and Manchester cotton shirtings in four.* There will 

 be no occasion to croft cotton goods, but linens receive a 

 clearer and more brilliant white by exposure upon the grass 

 for a few days. Junius Smith. 



Liverpool^ Jan. 15th, 1828. 



P. S. I have omitted to notice, that the saving in alkali 

 by this method of bleaching, compared with the usual con- 

 sumption by the English, Scotch and Irish Bleachers, is 

 about twenty-five per cent. 



Art. IX. — Biographical Notice of Alexander Volta. 



(Translated for this Journal by Prof. John Griscom.) 



Before the great discovery which bears his name, and 

 which has immortalized him, Volta had devoted himself to 

 Electricity, and Chemistry. The researches of Muschen- 

 broeck, greatly interested him, and it was not long after this, 

 that his memoir on the attractive force of the electric fluid, 

 appeared. At a later period, he applied himself to perfec- 

 ting the philosophical instruments for measuring electricity, 



* Specimens of these articles perfectly bleached by Mr, Smith's process are 

 in our hands. — Ed. 



