152 BEST CONSTRUCTION OF A VOLTAIC APPARATUS. 



with an apparatus very different in size and number of plates 



from the one juft described. 

 Couronne de This second battery was precisely the couronne des tasses 

 tasses; plates of Sig. Volta, consisting of two hundred pairs of plates, 

 inc.ies each about two inches square, placed in half pint pots of 



surface 3200 common queen's ware, and made active by some of the li- 

 square inches. q Uor l|fie j j n eXc i t j n g t h e large battery, to which was added 



a fresh portion of sulphuric acid, equal to about a quarter 

 of a pint to a gallon. 

 Its effects. To state as shortly as possible the effects produced by this 



battery : 



Experiment 1. It decomposed potash and barytes readily. 

 Exp. 2. It produced the metallization of ammonia with 

 great facility. 



Exp. 3. It ignited charcoal vividly. 



Exp. 4. It caused considerable divergence of the gold 

 leaves of the electrometer. 



Exp. 5. It gave a vivid spark, after being in action three 



hours. At the expiration of twenty-four hours, it retained 



sufficient, power to metallize ammonia, and continued, with 



gradually decreasing energy, to produce the same effect, till 



the end of forty hours, when it seemed nearly exhausted. 



I s't fth From the results cf the foregoing experiments, which, 



electricity in- though simple and not numerous, I trust, are satisfactory ; 



creases with jyj- Tj avy ' s theory of the mode of action of the vol- 



the number, & ■ J . _ 



quantity with taic battery confirmed: he says (in his Paper on some che- 



theextm of m ^\ agencies of electricity, sect. 9, after having shown the 



effect of induction to increase the electricity of the opposite 



plates) " the intensity, increases with the number, and the 



quantity with the extent of the series*" 



Thisproveci by That this is so, the effects produced on the platinaand iron 



the preceding w - } n the fi rst aw( j fifth experiments with the large bat- 



expc-nmetits, ' l . ° 



on perfect con- tery, and the subsequent experiments on imperfect conduc- 



djictors, to ,. s w j tn the small apparatus, sufficiently prove. The pla- 



tina wire being a perfect conductor, and not liable to be 



oxidated, presents no obstacle to the free passage of the 



electricities through it, which, from the immense quantities 



given out from so large a surface* evolve, on their mutual an- 



* Journal, vol. XIX, p. 55. 



niliilation. 



