Voltaic Electricity on Alcohol, fyc. 327 



Before applying it to this purpose, 1 thought it right to investi- 

 gate the principles on which it was founded, and the degree of 

 confidence which might be placed in its indications, and I shall 

 afterwards have occasion to allude to this subject more particu- 

 larly. In the mean time I shall only observe, that I have fully 

 satisfied myself of the accuracy of Mr Faraday's view, that when 

 the same electric current passes through two different aqueous 

 solutions, and exerts a decomposing agency on the water of these 

 solutions, the quantity of that liquid decomposed in each solu- 

 tion will be exactly the same ; and hence, conversely, when the 

 same quantity of hydrogen and oxygen, or of one or other of these 

 gases, is evolved from two different fluids by the passage through 

 them of the same current of electricity, we have strong grounds 

 for concluding that in both cases water is the subject of decom- 

 position. 



In applying these principles to the present case, I employed 

 tubes having platinum wires cemented into them by the blow- 

 pipe, and terminated by pieces of platinum foil of one inch long 

 by one-fifth broad, soldered with gold to their extremities. Two 

 of these tubes were filled with the alcohol under examination, 

 and inverted in a small evaporating basin ; whilst two others were 

 filled with the aqueous liquid with which the alcoholic fluid was 

 compared, and inverted as the others. These tubes were then 

 connected as in Fig. 5. Occasionally, also, the alcoholic liquid 

 was placed in the tube A of Fig. 6, having a wire cemented 

 at N, and another passing through a cork at P ; and this tube 



was connected with those containing the aqueous liquid, as in 

 Fig. 6. 



The experiments were made on alcohol of specific gravity .802, 

 and also of specific gravity .796. The vessel A, Fig. 5, with its 

 tubes was filled with alcohol of the former specific gravity, holding 

 in solution ^ T of potash ; and water acidulated with T V of sul- 

 phuric acid was placed in B. The tube P of the vessel B was 

 connected with the positive pole of a battery of thirty-six pairs 



