]Q6 ON GALV-ANISM. 



X. 



On Gahanifjn. By Mr. ChArlks Sylvester. 



To Mr. NICHOLSON. 

 SIR, 



Difficulties re- lOU did me the honour of inferting in your valuable 

 ^•'"S e 5a " Journal, fome experiments tending to illufirate the theory of 



vjmc decompo- » r ^ J 



fition of water ; galvanifm. I do not know who originally propofed the idea 

 aS to tbe d !*" or * *' ie combination of electricity with hydrogen (the truth of 

 w i res . which my experiments were intended to eilabli(h), though I 



am now bound to acknowledge the ingenuity and importance 

 of the thought. Such an idea would perhaps never have been 

 fuggefted, had it not been for the very paradoxical appear- 

 ances attending the decompofition of water by galvanifm. 

 The appearance of the hydrogen at fo great a diftance from 

 the oxigen, both of which mull have been produced from the 

 fame particle of water, was very fatisfaclorily accounted for 

 by this conjecture. The continental philofophers, and Dr, 

 Gibbes of Bath, did not Id well account for the phenomena 

 by their hypothecs, though it appeared fo formidable, as to 

 threaten the theory of modern chemiftry with diflolution. 

 Hypothefis of Another hypothecs of the decompofition of water, was 

 Mr. Wilkinfon • b M wilkinfon, in his Elements of Galvanifm, and 



c?;iiured., . 



in your 36th Number. If we even allow Mr. W. the advan- 

 tage of all his very gratuitous data in accounting for the de- 

 compofition of water, the contradiction with which they 

 abound, will totally render his hypothefis invalid. 

 Remarks in de- Mr. W. begins by fuppofing a particle of water analogous 

 tail on Mr. W.'s t the Leyden phial, which is the fame thing as to fuppofe that 

 water, a conductor of electricity, is compofed of particles in 

 themfelves non-conductors. Mr. W. is of opinion, that the 

 decompofition takes place in the middle of the liquid between 

 the points of the wires. The way in which he fuppofes the 

 feparation to be effecled, is fomething like the idea the an- 

 cients had of the folutions of metals in acids, viz. that the 

 metal was fplit into very minute particles (capable of being 

 fufpended in the liquid) by the wedge-like particles of the 

 acid. Alter the decompofition is effected, he tells us that 

 the capacity of the hydrogen is diminished for electricity, 



while 



