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IX. On the Chemical Action of Atmospheric Electricity . By Alexander 
Barry, Esq. F.L.S. Communicated by John George Children, Esq. Sec. 
R.S., 8§c. 8$c. 
Read Feb. 24 , 1831. 
The intimate connection existing 1 between the chemical constitution of various 
substances and their condition in regard to electricity, has now been long 
known. So true is this, that the very order of their affinities has also, for a 
considerable period, been acknowledged as greatly within the control of this 
agent. With this object in view, the electrical influence, as exhibited in the 
ordinary way, as well as by the Voltaic battery, has successively confirmed its 
results in the experiments of Nicholson, Cavendish, Sir H. Davy, Chil- 
dren, and the French chemists. This being the case, it is not my purpose to 
advert to any new source of electrical accumulation, but to describe what ap- 
pears to me as the link connecting the researches of Dr. Franklin with the 
electro-chemical theory of Sir H. Davy. With this view, in August 1824, I 
elevated the kite in an atmosphere favourable to the exhibition of its pheno- 
mena. It was raised from an apparatus firmly fixed in the earth, and was in- 
sulated by a glass pillar. The usual shocks were felt on touching the string, 
which simple fact I am induced to mention from the circumstance of no elec- 
trometer having been employed. The portion of string let out with a double gilt 
thread passed through it, was about five hundred yards. I then made the con- 
nection shown in the accompanying sketch, where the straight glass tubes A B, 
having platina wires passed from above half way down their axes, and standing 
in their respective glass cups C D, were filled with a solution of sulphate of 
soda coloured with syrup of violets, connected also with each other by the bent 
glass tube E, likewise filled with the above solution in the usual manner. A 
portion of gilt thread d was then brought from the tube at A and united to the 
kite-string K, whilst a similar thread b was carried from B to the earth. Bub- 
