100 
THEORY OF GALVANISM. 
Exciioincut of duced by the mere association of zinc and silver, or copper 
tricVty* plates, separated by a piece of paper ; that this motion is pro- 
plioiionuna of portionally greater when no liquid is used in the apparatus ; 
tiu' rloctric 
column. but that no chemical effect was then produced. Whence I 
concluded, that a kind of pile might be made, producing elec- 
tromotion, and no chemical effect. 
My following paper, in your Journal for August, related to 
another class of experiments made with the same view. It 
came into my mind to try whether there would be some advan- 
tage to bring the paper closer to one of the metal plates, by 
pasting it on that metal. This idea led me to' a great number 
of experiments with different metals, the general result of 
which was, that a great increase of electromotion actually does 
arise from pasting the paper on that one of the metals, which, 
in its association with the other, yields to it some electric fluid, 
as it is the case of copper and silver, which yield some electric 
fluid to zinc. 
1 have made various trials for the execution of my devised 
apparatus, by pasting paper on silver, and also en copper plates j 
but as it was with the view of a great increase of number, I 
was discouraged by the time and expence it would require, 
when luckily it came to my recollection, that a paper was fa- 
bricated in Germany, called in English Dutch-gilt paper, which 
afforded together a copper lamina to be applied to a zinc plate, 
as well as the paper necessary for its separation from the next 
zinc plate, and that the coppered surface of that paper was co- 
vered with a kind of varnish which preserves its brightness. 
I therefore procured some of that paper, and for a trial I con- 
structed a pile composed of my large zinc plates, and of equal 
pieces of that paper, which exceeded my expectation, so great 
was the electromotion which it produced, comparatively to a 
pile of the same number of pairs in which the same metals 
were separated by a piece of loose paper. 
The large size, however, of the parts of this first apparatus, 
and the difficulty of cutting them perfectly equal, was an impe- 
diment to that great increase of the number which I had in view. 
That consideration induced me to make the pieces much smaller. 
m 
