1840.] The Galvanic Battery. 1179. 



cles of the matter, whatever it may, be metallic or non-metallic, have 

 the power to communicate their forces, then conduction occurs, and 

 is a distinct act of discharge between these contiguous particles. The 

 lower the state of tension at which this discharge takes place, the 

 higher is the conducting power of the matter. Hence then throughout 

 a wire conveying a charge of electricity, there is a constant series 

 of discharges taking place between the contiguous particles of which 

 it is composed ; and Faraday intimates, in the form of a query, the possi- 

 bility that these discharges may be similar in kind, though almost 

 infinitely different in degree, to those which take place between two 

 charged bodies through the medium of the air, or other insulating, sub- 

 stance. A wire, it has been experimentally proved, has the power of 

 sensibly retarding the passage of a current, and this power of retarda- 

 tion may be traced through a chain of substances till it reaches its 

 maximum in air, but nothing can be detected during this process to 

 shew that its nature has in any way been changed or modified other- 

 wise than in degree, and therefore Faraday asks, " may not the retarda- 

 tion and ignition of a wire be effects exactly correspondent in their 

 nature to the retention of charge and spark in air ?" 



To enter farther upon the various theoretical questions naturally 

 brought before our view in examining the principles of the Galvanic 

 Battery, would extend this paper to a great, and indeed unnecessary, 

 length, and T trust that what has already been said, will suffice to point 

 out the great principles of its action. The chemical theory of the 

 Battery, and indeed the entire identity of chemical and electrical forces, 

 may now be considered as indisputably established by the researches of 

 Sir Michael Faraday, and the question, as was previously remarked, 

 thereby removed for ever from " the domain of doubtful knowledge to 

 that of inductive certainty,'^ 



