and Electrolysis of Chemical Compounds. 377 



and alcohol, when as pure as possible, are almost non-conduc- 

 tors of the current. Lapschin and Tichanowitsch also found 

 that alcohol did not conduct the current of 1000 elements unless 

 it had absorbed moisture. 



These two bodies, which at all events belong to the class of 

 bad conductors, show that even the presence of hydrogen 

 which is readily interchanged with metals does not always 

 imply a sufficient conduction for electrolysis. In both we can 

 make a direct substitution of potassium and sodium for hy- 

 drogen ; and in water we can replace the hydrogen by iron ; 

 and yet this property does not seem in this case to possess any 

 special significance for the conduction. Even elective affinity 

 appears here to take no part therein ; otherwise the electro- 

 lysis of these substances could not be so doubtful, since several 

 reactions are known in which they exchange their constituents 

 — e. g. water with oxide of potassium, water with alcoholates*, 

 consequently in both cases with electrolytes. With alcohol, 

 however, decomposition by the metallic chlorides, for example, 

 requires the application of heat. 



3. Electrolysis of liquefied Hydrogen Acids. 



The combination of hydrogen with the metalloids (chlorine, 

 bromine, iodine, sulphur, &c.) furnishes bodies the electrolysis 

 of which was specially important for the purpose of this inves- 

 tigation, since they exhibit numerous chemical reactions, and 

 nearly all of them had only been tested hitherto, as to their 

 electrolyzability, dissolved in water. As they are all gaseous, 

 it was necessary to condense them. 



Faraday's method proved here the most suitable ; it gives 

 with tolerable facility a sufficient quantity of great purity. 

 The process of condensing the hydride of chlorine was as 

 follows : — After a platinum wire had been fused into one end 

 of a strong glass tube, reaching to the other extremity, con- 

 centrated sulphuric acid was poured in till the tube was half 

 filled, upon which, separated by a small disk of blotting-paper, 

 was placed a layer of crystals of chloride of ammonium. 

 Further, the second extremity of the tube was bent round, 

 and into it a short platinum wire was inserted to serve as the 

 second electrode, and, the tube being closed by fusing, fixed 

 at a distance of 2 or 3 millims. from the first wire. The two 



* In this case the reaction is : — 

 



H s}0+ H}0=0 2 H 5}0+ H }a 



This alcoholate is an electrolyte ; with the battery of 20 Bunsen's ele- 

 ments a rapid evolution of gas took place, while the* liquid became brown- 

 coloured. 



