JgA DECOMPOSITION OF WATER BY GALVANISM. 



of such a transmission must have arisen, either fiom an inac- 

 curate mode of performing the experiment, or from a hasty 

 and unwarrauLL-d geueralizement of the repulsions and at- 

 tractions supposed to be exerted at the opposite poles of 

 the £,alvanic battery. 

 Decomposi- Most of your readers are aware, that, vvlien gold wires 



tion of water proceeding from each extremity of a moderately po'^erful 

 in a single Tes- , . , . .. • j i j 



sgj galvanic battery, in a state or action, are intruduted under 



a receiver tilled with water, and inverted over u b sin con- 

 taining the same fluid, as at PI. VI, tig. 1. the wire P being 

 connected with the zinc side, and tiie wwe N with the ne- 

 gative side, a decoorjposition of the water immediately en- 

 • j^ j^^^gygg. sues, oxigen is evolved at jo, and hidrooen at «. The de- 

 selwithsepa composition even goes on, when the wires are inserted in 

 ra e receivers, ggp^j-j^^e receivers, fig. 2; attended with this remarkable 

 circumstance, that oxigea alone is found in one receiver, 

 and hidrogen alone in the other. As we are forced in the 

 present state of our knowledge, to believe, that a decom- 

 position of the water takes place at the extremity of each 

 Supposed re- wire, we must also admit, that the oxiaen evolved at n is 

 pulsion and expelled by the negative, and attracted by the positive 

 theoxigenand P^''''^» while the hidrogen evolved at p is repelled by the 

 hidrugen, positive, and attracted by the negative point; so that, 



during the decomposition contrary currents of oxigen and 

 sufficient to hidrogen are proceeding along the dotted Vine nap. Nay, 

 prevent their we must cven admit, that the force of these attractions and 



asceni through , • tr • .\ r i . i ^ . ^i 



the water. repulsions is sufhdtntly powerful, not Oi.ly to separate the 

 elements of water from a state of combination, but also to 

 overcome the mechanical tendency so ascend through the 

 water, which these elements possess in their gaseous con- 

 dition. 

 .Similar pheno- All this maybe admitted without much difficulty ; but 

 mena sai ■ lo the fact stated by Ritter is by no means so easily explained ; 

 wniiihewa- '^"^ indeed it has never been yet accounted for, without 

 ter IS in i-epa- having recourse to the most improbable supposions. This 

 philoisopher affirms, that when the receivers afe, cd, fig. 3, 

 filled with water, and inverted over separate vessels, A B, 

 C D, are connected by a gold wire, p n, if the wires P, N, 

 from the o[)posite extremities of the battery be immersed 

 jntothe water contained in the vessels A B, C D, a decom- 

 position 



