ON NITnOGEN AND AMMONIA. 42 



duced from pure water, has again been repeated*. The 

 energy with which the large Voltaic apparatus, recently 

 constructed in the Royal Institution, acts upon water, en- 

 abled me to put this question to a more decided test, than 

 was before in my power. I had formerly found in an e^jperi- 

 ment, in which pure water was electi'ified in two gold cones 

 in hidrogen gas, that no nitrous acid or alkali was formed. 

 It might be said, that in this case the presence of hidrogen 

 dissolved in water would prevent nitrous acid from appear- 

 ing; I therefore made two series of experiments, one in 'a 

 jar hlled with oxigen gas, and the other in an apparatus, 

 in which glass, water, mercury, and wires of platina only, 

 were present. 



In the first series 1000 double plates were used, the tvro i^t scries cf 

 cones were of platina, and contained about -^^ of a cubical experiBieui». 

 inch each, and filaments of asbestus were employed, to 

 connect them together. In these trials, when the batteries 

 were in full action, the beat was so great, and the gasses 

 were disengaged with so much, rapidity, that more than 

 half the water was lost in the course of a few minutes. 

 By using a weaker charge, the process was carried on for 

 some hours, and in some cases, for two or three days. In Noacid or .nl- 

 no instance, in which slowly distilled water was employed, kalL appeared, 

 and in which the receiver was filled with pure oxigen, from 

 oximuriate of potash, was any acid or alkali exhibited in 

 the cones: even when nitrogen was present, the indications except -when 

 of the production of acid and alkaline matter were very nitrogen is 

 feeble; though if the asbestus was touched with unwashed Conductor' ** 

 hands, or the smallest particle of neutrosaline matter in- touched with 

 troduced, there was an iminediate separation of acid and ""'^'P^'^ 

 alkali, at the points of contact of the asbestus with the pla- 

 tina, which could be made evident by the usual tests. 



In the second series of experiments, the oxigen and hi- oj spj^es ^.f 

 drogen produced from the water were collected under mer- experim>.nts. 

 cury, and the two portions of water communicated directly 

 with each other. In several trials made in this way, with Alkali in the 

 a combination of 500 plates, and continued for some days, negative glass, 



, p 1 1 f- 1 11 T 1-1 , ^cid in the 



it was always found, that fixed alkali separated in the glass positiTe. 



pegatively electrified ; and a minute quantity of acid, which 



Nicholson's Journal, August, 1809, p. 268. 



could 



