276 Researches in the Theory and Calculus of Operations. 



tity of hydrogen ; but, as before, equilibrium is soon restored 

 by mutual and equal reactions in opposing directions, ac- 

 companied by coating of the zinc. 3° The zinc strips being 

 taken out and cleaned, immerse them anew as in 3, and 

 connect their upper extremities by a copper wire 5. The 

 successive impulses of I and V against the fluid are now pro- 

 pagated across the water by atomic vibration (or de- and 

 recomposition) as formerly : those between I and V are mu- 

 tually interchanged ; those between each strip and the side 

 of the vessel are returned to the strip by vibration (alone). 

 As the vibrations tend to all directions and follow that which 

 •offers the least resistance, they respectively travel to the 

 upper extremities of the strips V and through the con- 

 ducting wire 5, thence down I and V to the place of action 

 in the fluid, where they serve to reinforce the action in further 

 decomposing the liquid instead of combining its acid, so 

 that oxygen and hydrogen are now both liberated. A similar 

 reinforcement would accrue without the intervention of 

 the conducting wire, provided the upper ends of the strips 

 were inclined together in contact; but while left open, the 

 atmospheric air is a non-conductor too powerful to be 

 broken through by the feeble battery here put in requisi- 

 tion. 



In practice, it has been found preferable to use two strips 

 of different metals, as zinc and copper, plunged as above 

 in the same vessel of acidulated water. The zinc is the 

 generator of force, the copper the conductor, which, being 

 carried to a second vessel of like fluid and soldered to a 

 second strip of zinc, hands in its reinforcement to the same : 

 the increased action thus initiated supplies additional force 

 to be carried by a second copper conductor to a third vessel, 

 and so on to any number of vessels deemed convenient. By 

 this method of successive additions, a very great force may 

 be accumulated, sufficient, when two platinum wires are 

 respectively attached to the first strip of zinc and the last 



