PROCEEDINGS 



OF 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 



1837. No. 29. 



April 6th, 1837. 

 FRANCIS BAILY, Esq., V. P. and Treasurer, in the Chair. 



Robert Hunter, Esq.; John Forbes Royle, M.D.; and Lieut- 

 J. R. Wellsted, were severally elected Fellows of the Society. 



A paper was in part read, entitled, " Further Observations on 

 Voltaic Combinations ; in a letter addressed to Michael Faraday, 

 Esq., D.C.L. F.R.S., Fullerian Professor of Chemistry in the Royal 

 Institution, &c. &c." By John Frederick Daniell, Esq., F.R.S., 

 Professor of Chemistry in King's College, London, 



April 13, 1S37. 

 FRANCIS BAILY, Esq., V.P. and Treasurer, in the Chair. 

 William Archibald Armstrong White, Esq., was elected a Fellow 

 of the Society. 



The reading of Professor Daniell's paper on Voltaic Combinations 

 was resumed and concluded. 



In the course of an inquiry on the effects of changes of tempe- 

 rature upon voltaic action, the author was led to observe some curious 

 disturbances and divisions of the electric current produced by the 

 battery, arising from secondary combinations ; the results of which 

 observations form the subject of the present paper. He found that 

 the resistance to the passage of the current was diminished by dis- 

 solving the sulphate of copper which was in contact with the copper 

 in the standard sulphuric acid, instead of water. The increased 

 effect of the current, as measured by the voltameter, was farther 

 augmented by the heat evolved during the mixture ; and wishing 

 to study the influence of temperature in modifying these effects, 

 the author placed the cells of the battery in a tub, filled with hot 

 water. On charging the cells with a solution of muriate of am- 

 monia in the interior, and aqueous solution of sulphate of copper in 

 the exterior compartment, he observed that a portion of the current 

 is discharged by the water in which the apparatus was immersed ; 

 its passage being indicated by the disengagement of gas betwixt 

 the adjacent cells ; in which case, one of the zinc rods is thrown 

 out of action, and the copper of that cell acts merely as an electrode 

 to the antecedent zinc. A saturated solution of common salt was 



