Generation of Electrical Currents. 87 
it into a negative element, which has since been confirmed 
by M. Viard in an elaborate memoir (see London Philoso- 
phical Magazine, No. 39). 
‘The negative condition of a rapidly oxidizing plate is in 
some manner connected with the nascent: state of the oxide, 
and the metal to which it owes its birth; it is here that the 
joint, the galvanic current has to cross occurs... The apparent 
contradiction of an oxidized plate being negative, may be ex- 
plained, by supposing a class of chemical action where the 
metallic surface in the act of producing an oxide acts as a 
powerful negative, or it is an arrangement like the experi- 
ment in the diagram, with the space at G open. 
An instance of the generation of electricity, for a useful 
purpose may amuse some of your readers. I give it on the 
authority of a credible eye-witness, who saw the process. 
A lady in New York undertook to light the gas by an elec- ° 
tric spark; she shuffled her slippers over the carpet for a 
few seconds, and then approached the jet of the gas-pipe ; 
the gas was turned on, and the finger held near the noz- 
zel of the burner, to allow an electric spark to pass from 
it, which generally ignited the gas. The success of the ex- 
periment was of course influenced by the dryness of the at- 
mosphere ; but on the North American continent, a state of 
the air fit for such a purpose, is, it would seem, by no means 
uncommon. In this country a similar experiment for light- 
ing gas by an electric spark from the finger is often enough 
_ performed, but our climate requires the aid of an electrical 
machine and an insulated stool. 
