PROCEEDINGS 



OF 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 



1832-J833. No. 13. 



Report, drawn up by Samuel Hunter Christie, Esq. M.A., F.R.S., 

 on Mr. Faraday's paper, entitled " Experimental Researches in 

 Electricity: — Third Series." 



Report. 



§ VII. Identity of Electricities from different Sources. 



§ VIII. Relation, by measure, of Common and Voltaic Electricity." 



In order to prove the identity of electricities derived from different 

 sources, the author in this communication, after viewing the pheno- 

 mena exhibited by electricity, shows, that although some effects are 

 most readily derived from a particular source, yet none are peculiar 

 to such source. The principal points in which ordinary and voltaic 

 electricity have been considered to differ, are the inefficiency of ordi- 

 nary electricity to produce chemical decomposition, or to affect a 

 magnetic needle like voltaic electricity. The experiments of Wollas- 

 ton were made early in the application of electricity to chemical de- 

 composition, before the general law of the transfer of the elements to 

 the poles of the battery had been indicated ; yet his 4th experiment, 

 in which electricity from the machine was passed through a solution 

 of sulphate of copper, and his 5th, where it was passed through a so- 

 lution of corrosive sublimate, have the true characteristic of decom- 

 position by voltaic electricity : and it is surprising that those w 7 ho 

 advocate a distinction between these electricities should have ven- 

 tured to overlook these experiments, when they bring forward the 

 experiment of the decomposition of water, as deficient in this charac- 

 teristic of the transfer of the elements *. This circumstance, how- 

 ever, induced Mr. Faraday not merely to repeat Wollaston's 4th ex- 

 periment, which he did with complete success, but to adopt different 

 arrangements ; and by these, with ordinary electricity, he obtained, 

 in various instances, chemical decompositions having all the charac- 

 ters of decomposition by voltaic electricity. Whatever doubt, there- 

 fore, may have been thrown upon this part of the subject, he has en- 

 tirely removed it. 



The author has also removed the doubts which it appears had been 

 entertained respecting the conclusion of M.Colladon, in consequence 

 of the failure of his experiments in the hands of others. By a parti- 

 cular arrangement connected with the glass inclosing the galvanome- 

 ter, and by retarding the passage of the electricity through its wires, 

 by means similar to those by which gunpowder is most successfully 



* Phil. Trans. 1832, p. 282, note, 

 p 



