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LVIIL Influence of Proximity of S ah stances upon Voltaic 

 Action. By Dr. G. Gore, F.R.S.* 



IN the year 1849 I made some attempts to discover an 

 effect of gravity upon voltaic action at about the same 

 time that Faraday was seeking to demonstrate by experiment 

 a connexion between gravity and electricity. Recently I 

 have shown (see " Relation of Volta-electromotive Force to 

 Pressure/' Phil. Mag. Feb. 1893, pp. 97, 98) that the differ- 

 ence of pressure due to gravity at the upper and lower ends 

 of a vertical column of an electrolyte about three metres high, 

 upon two perfectly similar electrodes of the same metal at the 

 upper and lower ends of the column, in a series of six glass 

 tubes, produced a very feeble electric current ; and that 

 whilst in fully one half of the experiments no current was 

 perceptible, in forty-two instances a current occurred, and in 

 thirty-nine of these it was in an upward direction through 

 the liquid, the lower electrodes being positive. In my opinion 

 these results indicated that the energy of mechanical pressure 

 produced by gravity altered the volta-electromotive force and 

 enabled an electric current to be produced. 



It is manifest, if these experiments and statements are 

 reliable, and tbe effects were really due to pressure : — 1st, 

 that gravity, by producing pressure, exerts an extremely 

 minute influence upon chemical and voltaic action ; and, 2nd, 

 that similar effects, though excessively minute ones, must be 

 produced by the gravitative action of a large mass of metal 

 or other substance upon a voltaic electrode at the end of 

 a horizontal column of electrolyte presented to it. 



I have roughly calculated the probable amount of voltaic 

 effect of pressure by the attraction of a massive cube of lead 

 weighing 74 cwt., with its centre at a distance of fifteen 

 inches from the ends of a series of fourteen horizontal tubes 

 of liquid similar to those above referred to. Taking the 

 weight of the earth as being about 12,500,000 million million 

 million pounds, the proportional weight of the cube to that 

 of the earth as being about 1 to 1511,000000,000000,000000, 

 and the proportional distance of its centre from the electrodes 

 to that of the earth's centre from them as being about 1 to 

 17,000000, the proportional strength of gravitative influence 

 of the cube to that of the earth upon them would be about 1 

 to 5300,000000, and after correction for the greater number 

 of tubes in the horizontal than in the vertical apparatus the 

 probable amount of voltaic effect would still be only about 

 * Communicated by the Author. 



