BEST CONSTRUCTION OF A VOLTAIC APPARATUS. J53 



riihiiation, heat sufficient to raise the temperature of the pla- 

 tina to the point of fusion. 



With the iron wire, of 7 Vth of an inch diameter, the ef- and imperfect 

 feet is very different, which is explained by the low state of conductors. 

 the intensity of the electricity) sufficiently proved by its 

 not causing any divergence of the gold leaves of the elec- 

 trometer) ; which being opposed in its passage by the thin 

 coat of oxide, formed on the iron wire, at the moment the 

 circuit is completed, a very small portion only of it is trans- 

 mitted through the wire. To the same want of intensity is 

 to be attributed the total inability of the large battery to 

 decompose the barytes, and its general weak aqtion on bo- 

 dies which are not perfect conductors. The small battery, 

 on the contrary, exerts great power on imperfect conductors, 

 decomposing them readily, although its whole surface is 

 more than thirty times less than that of the great battery; 

 but in point of number of plates, it consists of nearly ten 

 times as many as the large one. 



The long continued action of the small battery proves Importance of 

 the utility of having the cells of sufficient capacity to hold haTingthecells 

 a large quantity of liquor, by which much trouble of emp- p ac j 0U s, 

 tying and filling the troughs is avoided, and the action kept 

 up, without intermission, for a long space of time, a cir- 

 cumstance, in many experiments, of material consequence. 

 Beside this advantage, with very large combinations, a cer- and some dis- 



tain distance between each pair of plates is absolutely neees- tan ? e betW( ; ea 



r . r . •" each pair of 



sary, to prevent spontaneous discharges, which will other- plates. 



wise ensue, accompanied with vivid flashes of electric light, 



as I have experienced, with a battery of 1250 four-inch 



plates, on the new construction. 



.And here I beg leave to mention an experiment, which, Argument fer 



though not directly in point, cannot be considered as foreign thedissirnilaii- 



to the subject of this paper. It has been urged, as one anc ( Voltaic 



proof of the nonidentity of the common electricity, and electricity done 



that given out by the Voltaic apparatus, that in the latter " 



there is no striking distance. That objection, however, 



must cease. I took a small receiver, open at one end; 



through perforations in the opposite sides of which were 



placed two wires, with platina points, well polished: one 



was fixed by cement to the glass, the other was movable, by 



means 



