Passage of Electricity through Liquids. 273 



magnitude Be— BV is constant) the force K is perfectly inde- 

 pendent of the section of the conductor, and increases with the 

 magnitude nG, the electromotive force of the constant battery em- 

 ployed. This electromotive force, however, is taken in the ex- 

 periments by no means so exceedingly small, simply to prevent the 

 cessation of the electrical current in consequence of the polari- 

 zation which is set up ; and it is very possible that, for a very 



small value of the quotient -y-, no electrochemical decomposition 



would be perceived. There are certainly a number of liquids 

 which cannot be electrolyzed, which do not conduct the constant 

 current of a liquid battery. There are, in my opinion, such 

 liquids with respect to which the magnitude Be— -B'e has a very 

 small value, and which for a short distance, and by the appli- 

 cation of a constant battery of a sufficient number of elements, 

 might very likely undergo chemical decomposition. The value 

 of this magnitude (Be— B'e') = A(C€ — C'e') depends on the con- 

 stants denoted by CC and ee'. 



I shall afterwards return to the value of the latter. With 

 solid bodies, the constants C and C are very small, because the 

 molecules are hardly mobile, and with solid salts no electro- 

 chemical decomposition is observed. The liquids which (though 

 their particles are certainly mobile) do not conduct electrolyti- 

 cally, are insulators. The constant Be— B'e' is consequently 

 with them very small; and in them at all events only very 

 great electromotive forces, great values of wG, can bring about a 

 decomposition. 



It follows from this consideration that constant batteries, at 

 least with the number of elements which are usually at our dis- 

 posal, will probably not afford the means of electrolyzing those 

 liquids which at present are called insulators, but that frictional 

 electricity or induction-currents (that is, electricity of high 

 tension) must be applied in order to produce decomposition. 

 When, for instance, the inner and outer coatings of a strongly 

 charged Ley den battery are united by means of a column of 

 such an insulating liquid, then the electromotive force is given 

 by the difference of potentials of the free electricity on the inner 

 and outer coatings of the Leyden battery, and we can then per- 

 ceive a chemical decomposition of the liquid, particularly at the 

 first discharge, when the difference of the potentials of the elec- 

 tricity is still great. Whether the section of the liquid is also 

 of influence, or whether chemical decomposition occurs or not, 

 cannot with our imperfect knowledge of the discharge, be decided, 

 since Ohm's law is perhaps no longer applicable. 



I have not attempted to demonstrate the matter separated in 

 the so-called insulating liquids when the discharges of a Leyden 



Phil. Mag. S. 4. Vol. 44. No. 293. Oct. 1872. T 



