98 



Experimental Researches in Electricity. 



are essentially the same, it appeared evident that we might 

 reason from the former as to the manner of action of the 

 latter ; and it was to me, a probable consequence, that the 

 use of electricity of such intensity as that afforded by the 

 machine, would, when applied to effect and elucidate electro- 

 chemical decomposition, shew some new conditions of that 

 action, evolve new views of the internal arrangements and 

 changes of the substances under decomposition, and perhaps 

 give efficient powers over matter as yet undecomposed." 



Under the above impression, Faraday proceeded to expe- 

 riment on decomposition by means of the electrical machine, 

 using the form of apparatus with the discharging train, de- 

 scribed in a former paper. He first proved that the ele- 

 ments of decomposed bodies were transferred to great dis- 

 tances from pole to pole, and provided the same quantity 

 of electricity passed between the poles, the intensity of the 

 chemical action was not interfered with by the intervals at 

 which these were placed apart from each other. Thus, 

 whether the bodies under decomposition were placed in im- 

 mediate contact, or separated by an interval of seventy feet, 

 connection being maintained between them by means of an 

 insulated string wetted in a decomposable solution, the re- 

 sults were the same for the same quantity of electricity 

 transmitted. He next employed only a single metallic pole, 

 using the end of the piece of moistened string as the other 

 pole, and still decomposition followed as before. The simple 

 and beautiful experiments detailed shew distinctly, that the 

 process of decomposition was* not dependent on the simul- 

 taneous action of two metallic poles, since a single one was 

 fully efficient, and the transfer of the elements took place 

 in accordance with the well-known law of the direction of 

 the current. 



The presence of water has been supposed by many, to be 

 an essential condition of electro-chemical decomposition, and 

 it was asserted by Sir Humphrey Davy, that " there are no 



