17S ok EtECTRO-CirEMICAL EXPERIMENTS*. 



and neither of them exerted more than a feeble action on 

 imperfect conductors; but the battery charged with muri- 

 atic acid, to my great surprise, melted two thirds of the 

 length' of wire it had melted in the first instance, and ap- 

 peared to decompose water with equal rapidity. The tKree 

 batteries were suffered to remain. At the end of two days 

 the first two had totally lost their acting power, but the lost 

 stilt melted one third of the original length of wire, and 

 continued to melt wire till the fourth day. Its action on 

 imperfect conductors was still evident after six days, v he 1 

 the, experiments were discontinued. In all these experi- 

 ments the plates were lifted out of the acid during the in- 

 tervals. It was a long time before 1 could procure an equal 

 continuance of action from the batteries which had first 

 been employed with sulphuric and nitric acids; their powers 

 appeared to be in a measure exhausted, and their action 

 was comparatively feeble, but by persevering in the use of 

 the muriatic acid, 1 at length brought them to an equal uni- 

 formity of action. 

 Ttoportion «f The quality of the acid to be preferred was clearly 

 wnds* water. p r0 ved by these experiments; but it was still necessary to 

 determine the requisite proportion in which it should be 

 employed. For the decomposition of potash this "circum- 

 stance requires particular attention, as the strength of the 

 mixture should vary with the extent of the apparatus. For 

 any power not exceeding 200 plates of 4 inches, the pro- 

 portions may be from 8 to 10 ounces of muriatic acid for 

 every gallon of water. But if 300, 400, or any greater 

 number be employed, or their size increased, the quantity 

 of acid should be proportionally diminished, or the heat 

 produced will destroy the metallic globules at the moment 

 of their production. 

 Naphtha de- In the first experiments I made on this substance, the 

 composed operation was performed under naphtha, but in this way I 

 5tth. found the naphtha was decomposed more rapidly than the 



potash, and the quantity of carbon liberated embarrassed 

 the result. I now always operate in the open air, and use 

 Hirer prefera- conductors of silver, which 1 find preferable to platina. A 

 We to platina.. ^ ut s i} ver p] a te or spoon is connected with the negative (the 

 copper) surface of the battery. On this I place a small 



piece 



