MR. DANIELL ON VOLTAIC COMBINATIONS. 
157 
The making - or breaking- of this extra current had no effect upon the diverted cur- 
rent abed, but the two were always in opposite directions. When the first moved 
the needle to the E. the second deflected its needle W. When the diverted current 
was W. the breaking the main current always turned it in the normal direction E, 
and at the same moment the needle of the extra current changed to the W. Upon 
restoring the main current both needles returned to their former position. 
When the battery current, instead of being allowed to flow through short connec- 
tions, was led through a separate galvanometer, each of the other currents passing 
also to separate galvanometers, the diverted current varied in the different cells from 
45° to 20°, but was always in the normal direction, and the extra current was oppo- 
site. When the short connection was added to the battery, as well as the long one 
through the galvanometer, the latter fell from 90° E. to about 20° E., and the diverted 
current oscillated rapidly E. and W., and the needle of the extra current changed 
with it in the opposite directions W. and E. 
I could now have no doubt that the explanation of the sudden stoppage and re- 
versal of the battery current, of which I was in search, was to be found either in this 
diversion which I have described, or from the opposition of extra currents exalted in 
their power by heat, or possibly from some combination of the two. I therefore re- 
turned to the original combination of the battery in the steamer. 
I soon ascertained that the extra current could be produced by a connection from 
any part of the tin case to any of the cells of the battery standing upon wooden 
blocks, and that its energy was increased both by acidulating the condensed water 
and by heat. I found also that by leading this current through the same galvano- 
meter and voltameter as the battery current, that it interfered with it in different de- 
grees, even to its stoppage and reversal. I must not attempt to give you the details 
of the numerous series of observations which I have made upon the subject, but will 
content myself with stating as concisely as possible the results of the last combina- 
tion, which have proved always constant. 
At figg. 9 and 10 I have represented, as before, a section of the arrangement : the 
course of the main current is marked by the arrow heads, and is conducted by the 
electrodes through the voltameter V and the galvanometer G. The battery was first 
charged in the usual way, and the cells were placed in the steamer upon blocks of 
damp wood standing in a little acidulated water. The observation commenced at 
the temperature of 52°, and the following are the tabulated results. 
Time. 
Interval. 
Voltameter. 
5 min. rate. 
Galvanometer. 
h m 
/ 
Cubic inches. 
Cubic inches. 
O 
10 58 
11 3 
5 
6 
6 
60 E. 
11 5 
11 10 
5 
12 
6 
60 E. 
A connection was now made between the tin and the zinc cup of the galvanometer, 
as in fig. 9, by a b c, and the action was decreased. 
