1854.] 



DESCRIPTION OF NEW GALVANIC BATTEEIES. 



165 



and it would be an advantage to have two cellars, one much 

 colder than the other. If the liquor, upon pitching fine, were 

 racked in a clean cask and put into a cold cellar, there would be 

 much less risk of its fermenting again. I should recommend no 

 other liquor to be added to it; but, in order to prevent ullage, 

 that it should be racked into a smaller cask ; — the less air ad- 

 mitted the better, and if the cask be sound and iron-bound it 

 may be better to clos,e it at this time. 



" The application of cold will check fermentation immediately. 

 I have seen liquor in a state of froth boiling out of a large jar, 

 suddenly reduced to a state of quiescence by pumping on the 

 side of the jar. This fact induced me to cause an experiment to 

 be tried at Gayton during a very bad season for the cider making 

 the weather being very warm; a cask of juice was rolled into a 

 brook of cold water, and sunk by stones attached to it; it re- 

 mained in that position till nearly Christmas, and was so much 

 better than any other made that year that Mr. Newman obtained 

 double the price for that hogshead he did for any of the rest. 

 Perfect stillness is very desirable, as motion is found to excite the 

 acetous fermentation. A bottle of wine, attached to a sail of a 

 windmill in motion was, after three days, converted into vinegar, 

 although closely corked. When a second fermentation does take 

 place in cider, there is very little hope of its being rich and 

 good. 



" In such case, I should recommend its being drawn out into 

 tubs, exposed to the cold as much as possible ; and after being 

 thus flattened, put back into the cask, at the same time well 

 6tirring up the whites of fifteen or twenty eggs, previously mixed 

 up with a portion of the liquor; if this succeeds in fining it, 

 which probably it will, it may then be racked into a clean cask, 

 .and closed as much as possible from the air. It is probable that 

 a great deal of mischief is caused b} r some principle of fermenta- 

 tion remaining in the case; this might be prevented by well 

 scalding the casks before they are filled ; or, what I think would 

 be better, by washing out the casks with clear lime water. 

 One large piece of lime put into a hogshead of water, and al- 

 lowed to settle would answer the purpose. Some brimstone 

 matches burned in the casks would have a tendency to prevent 

 fermentation. 



" I shall not say much upon the mode of crushing the apples 

 and pressing out the juice, having had so little practical ex- 

 perience; but I have always thought that if the fruit were 

 crushed between wooden rollers, and allowed to drain before be- 

 ing put under the stone, the process would be much expedited; 

 as the apples sometimes roll before the stone a long time before 

 they are broken. 



"In Ireland they use a press formed by a lever, which might 

 be made at less expense than with a screw, and be more quickly 

 worked : it is impossible the pressure can be too light at first, 

 and it should be increased gradually as the liquor runs from the 

 muss. Two sets of bags, allowing one to drain some time without 

 pressure, would be an undoubted advantage. 



"E. P." 



I need not, I think, add one word to the advice here given. 

 I earnestly hope it will be followed, and sure I am that we shall 

 .all feel and acknowledge the value of it, in the improvement in 

 quality, and increase in value, of our county beverage. 



I have been asked by hundreds whether it is really the fact 

 that during each visitation of that awful scourge, the Cholera, 

 which has again appeared among us, not a single case has ever 



yet occured in Herefordshire: my reply has been that it is so: I 

 shall be glad to be corrected if I ant wrong: if I am right, the 

 knowledge of this cannot be too widely circulated, nor can our 

 thankfulness be too great to the Almighty Being who has so 

 singularly and signally blessed and protected us. 



Description of some Hew Kiwis of Galvanic Batteries> 



Invented by Mr. Kukla, of Vienna.* 



The combination used in one of these, is antimony, or some 

 of its alloys, for a negative plate, with nitric acid of specific gra- 

 vity 1-4, in contact with it, and unamalgamated zinc, for a positive 

 plate, with a saturated solution of common salt in contact with 

 it. A small quantity of finely powdered per-oxide of manga- 

 nese is put into the nitric acid, which is said to increase the 

 constancy of the battery. The alloys of antimony which Mr. 

 Kukla has experimented with successfully are the following : — 

 Phosphorus and antimony, chromium and antimony, arsenic 

 and antimony, boron and antimony. These are in the order of 

 their negative character, phosphorus and antimony being the 

 most negative. Antimony itself is less negative than any of 

 these alloys. The alloys are made in the proportions of the 

 atomic weights of the substances. All these arrangements are 

 said by Mr. Kukla to be more powerful than when platinum or 

 carbon is substituted for antimony or its alloys. In this battery 

 a gutta percha bell cover is used over the antimony, and restino- 

 on a flat ring floating on the top of the zinc solution, — this ef- 

 fectually prevents any smell, and keeps the per-oxide of nitro- 

 gen in contact with the nitric acid solution. When a battery of 

 twenty-four cells was used, Mr. Kukla found that in the third 

 and twenty-first cells pure ammonia in solution was the ultimate 

 result of the action of the battery ; but only water in all the 

 others. This experiment was tried repeatedly, and always with 

 the same result. A battery was put into action for twenty-four 

 hours; at the end of that time the nitric acid had lost thirteen 

 twentieths of an ounce of oxygen, and one quarter of an ounce 

 of zinc was consumed. 



Now as one-quarter of an ounce of zinc requires only 0.06 of 

 an ounce of oxygen to form oxide of zinc, Mr. Kukla draws the 

 conclusion, that the rest of the oxygen is converted directly into 

 electricity; and this view, he says, is confirmed by the laro-e 

 amount of electricity given out by the battery in proportion to 

 the zinc consumed in a given time. In the above battery 

 each zinc plate had a surface of forty square inches. The ad- 

 dition of per-oxide of manganese does not increase the effect of 

 the battery, but it makes it more lasting — the per-oxide of ni- 

 trogen, formed in the bell cover, taking one atom of oxygen from 

 the per-oxide of manganese; — this is evident from only the oxide 

 of manganese being found in the battery after a time: in the 

 salt solution no other alteration takes place than what is caused 

 by the oxide of zinc remaining in a partly dissolved state in the 

 solution. For this battery Mr. Kukla much prefers porous cells, 

 or diaphragms of biscuit ware, as less liable to break, and being 

 more homogeneous in their material than any other kind. This 

 battery is very cheap, antimony being only Sd, per lb., whole- 

 sale, and the zinc not requiring amalgamation. — The second ar- 

 rangement tried by Mr. Kukla was antimony amalgamated zinc 

 with only one exciting solution, viz. concentrated sulphuric acid : 

 — this battery has great heating power, and the former great 

 magnetizing power — it, however, rapidly decreases in power, 

 and is not so practically useful as the double fluid battery, which 

 will exert about the same power for fourteen days, when the 



* Athenaeum. 



