16 MEMOIB OF ALFRED SMEE. [Chap. III. 



CHAPTER III. 



1840 TO 1842. 



Twenty-second year of his age — " Smee's Battery " — Marriage of Alfred Smee, 

 June 2nd, 1840 — ' Perrosesquicyanuret of Potassium ' paper — ' Electro-Metal- 

 lurgy ' published December 1840 ; age, twenty-two — Alfred Smee's re- 

 searches in electro-metallurgy — Base coinage — Delivers a lecture at the Eoyal 

 Institution, February 1841 ; age twenty-three — His specimens in electro- 

 metallurgy shown to the Prince Consort — Surgeon to the Bank of England — 

 Elected Fellow of the Royal Society — Makes a durable ink — Elected Surgeon 

 to the Royal General Dispensary, Aldersgate Street — Paper on the ' Reduc- 

 tion of Metals ' — Lecture at the Eoyal Institution on ' Reduction of Metals ' 

 — Paper on ' Inhalation of Ammonia '—Other scientific papers, &c. 



The year 1840 was, perhaps, the most momentous one in my 

 father's life, for in this year many of his inventions and dis- 

 coveries were given to the public. On the 29th of February his 

 paper was read before the Eoyal Society, ' On the Galvanic Pro- 

 perties of the Principal Elementary Bodies, with a Description of 

 a new Chemico-Mechanical Battery ' — now of world-wide repute, 

 and known by the name of the " Smee Battery." The same sub- 

 ject was made a paper, which was read at the Society of Arts, 

 June 1st, 1840. For the latter paper, the Gold Isis Medal, which 

 he received from the hands of the Duke of Sussex, was bestowed 

 upon him. Millais, the celebrated artist, also received a medal 

 on the same day. 



" Smee's Battery " was devised through conducting a series 

 of experiments on the ferrocyanuret of potassium, which gave 

 frequent occasion for the use of a galvanic battery. 



I found (Mr. Smee adds in ' Electro-Metallurgy ' *) that although the 

 batteries of Daniell and of Grove were admirably-contrived instruments, 

 yet it was very desirable to possess one that could be set in action at 

 a moment's notice, and with comparatively little trouble. It became 



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