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in the difcharge j but this never appeared to me to be 
very confiderable. In order to afcertain it by experi- 
ment, I firll found, by repeated trials, what length 
of a piece of iron wire^I was able to melt with a bat- 
tery confining of twenty jars, with the wires and 
connecting rods quite loofe, and a chain to join the 
rods belonging to each row of jars, which is the man- 
ner in which 1 have generally conftruCted them. In 
thefe circumhances, I found the battery was able to 
melt fomething more than two inches and a half of 
the wire. I then foddered the wires of each jar to the 
rod which connected them, and alfo foddered another 
rod to all thefe, inftead of the chain which I had 
ufed j fo that I avoided near a hundred fparks in the 
difcharge, at each of which there mufl have been 
fome lofs of force ; but I did not find, after many 
trials, that the ftrength of the battery had been 
thereby fenfibly diminifhed : for I could not melt 
three inches of the fame piece of wire in thefe cir- 
cumftances. It was only made red-hot, which is 
equivalent to the melting and exploding of little 
more than two inches and a half. 
XI. AhJlraB 
t 
