162 Mr Connell on the Action of' Voltaic Electricity 



shewn that alcohol still yields hydrogen from the negative pole, 

 when it is of such specific gravity as to entitle it to the charac- 

 ter of absolute alcohol, we shall then, I conceive, have direct 

 experimental proof that water enters as such into the constitu- 

 tion of alcohoL The alcohol principally used in the preceding 

 experiments had a sp. gr. of .7928 at 66° F. 5 which corresponds 

 with .795 at 60° F. ? and with .792 at 68° F., or 20° cent. It 

 was obtained by Mr Graham's process, of exposing commercial 

 alcohol in the vacuum of an air-pump with quicklime, during 

 from four to five weeks, and renewing the lime after the first 

 week's exposure. By continuing the exposure for eight weeks, 

 I afterwards succeeded in obtaining alcohol of specific gravity 

 .7928 at 62°J F., corresponding to .7938 at 60° F., and to 

 .790 at 20° cent. This alcohol,* when acted on in the tube, 

 fig. 1, by 216 pairs of 4-inch plates, the foils being ^ to |% of 

 an inch apart, still yielded gas from the negative pole, although 

 in smaller quantity than the alcohol of .792 at 20° cent. The 

 diminution in quantity was, however, merely owing to the con - 

 ducting power of the former alcohol being inferior to that of 

 the latter ; for when only T ^ 5 part of potash was dissolved 

 in the alcohol of .790, it yielded gas in considerable abundance, 

 comparatively speaking, and that with only 72 pairs of 4-inch 

 plates 3 half a cubic inch being collected in ten minutes, and the 

 evolution still going on. This gas, on examination, proved to 

 be hydrogen, as in the former instances. Even when only 

 I5 part of the alkali was dissolved, the liquid still gave a 

 considerable evolution of gas, and the dilution might have been 

 carried much farther without destroying the effect. No rea- 

 sonable doubt, therefore, I think, can be entertained, that water 

 enters as such into the constitution of absolute alcohol. 



Pure ether, rectified over chloride of calcium, was exposed to 

 the action of 216 pairs of 4-inch plates, without the slightest 

 symptom of decomposition, or action on a galvanometer, con- 

 sisting of a single magnetic needle, 7 inches long, in the centre 

 of 30 circuits of insulated copper-wire. Neither was it decom- 

 posed when it held corrosive sublimate, chloride of platinum, or 

 chromic acid in solution. I therefore consider the conclusion 

 authorized, that ether does not contain water as a constituent. 



* The experiments with this alcohol have been made since the paper was 

 read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 



