THEORY OF GALVANISM. 
961 
a plate of copper, it may be considered as acted upon, in Alternate 
opposite directions, by equal forces, which destroy each other, an^ copper” 10 
No alteration, therefore, takes place in its state of electricity ; would pro- 
/ duce no more 
nor does any change happen, even when we substitute, for one electro-motion 
of the copper plates, a third metal ; on account of the trifling ^ 1 n . £ j )l ^ n ff e a 
difference between the electromotive powers of bodies of this plate of fluid 
class. But liquids, possessing this power in only a very small ^fbetw een° & 
degree, may be brought into contact with one of the zinc eat ‘h P ai f tile 
. electro-motive 
surfaces, without impairing the electromotive effect j and acting power of this 
merely as conductors, they convey the excited electricity from ^ ^ 
the zinc plate, across the contiguous cell, to the next copper produce elec* 
. tro-motion at 
P la * e * its surfaces, 
Let us imagine, then, a series of copper and zinc plates, antl each pair 
5 would have its 
arranged in pairs for any number of repetitions ; (See the f u n energy. 
Diagram in plate 5, fig. 2,) with cells between each pair for the Numerical 
purpose of containing a fluid. Before these cells are filled, every Jtmbol^with 
copper plate will, according to the hypothesis, be in the state of reference to a 
figure. 
negative, and every zinc plate in that of positive electricity. Let 
us farther suppose the natural quantity of electricity in each 
copper and zinc plate, before they are brought into apposition, 
to be denoted by q, and that, when the electricity has passed 
from the copper to the zinc, the ratio of the quantities in each 
may be as 1 : m *. Let now the cells be filled with a conduct- 
ing fluid ; every pair of contiguous plates of copper and zinc 
will still maintain their relative proportions of electricity, viz. as 
1 : m. But, by reason of the conducting power of the fluid, 
the electricities of the first zinc and second copper plates will be 
equalized" ; as, in succession, will be also those of the zinc 
plate 2, and copper plate 3, &c. Now in order to find the 
relative quantities of electricity in the several pairs of plates, 
when an equilibrium in the arrangement is effected, if n equal 
the number of pairs of plates, then 2 n q = the total quantity 
of electricity in all of them taken together. Let x = the 
quantity of electricity in the first copper plate of the series $ 
* For the algebraical expression of this theory, which, in the paper 
as originally read, I had stated in common numbers, I am indebted to 
my fiend Mr. Dalton. 
then 
