100 
MR. GROVE ON THE GAS VOLTAIC BATTERY. 
voltameter. If, on the other hand, hydrogen and water be the only active elements, 
what becomes of the hydrogen? If it combine with the water, we undoubtedly 
should by this means be able to obtain a suboxide of hydrogen*, a result of which I 
have not seen the slightest symptom in a long course of experiments on this subject. 
Even if we assume the action of the oxygen to be a depolarizing one, as suggested 
by Dr. Schcenbein, this comes to the same thing, as this depolarization can only be 
accounted for as being effected by the combination of the oxygen with hydrogen ; 
and we might conversely assume this combination to be the efficient cause of the 
current, and the depolarization to take place in the hydrogen tubes. It seems to me 
that the effects at both anode and cathode are reciprocally dependent. The matter 
appears to me so clear that I should not have entered into detail upon it, were it not 
for the published letter of Dr. Sch<enbein above mentioned, and that the superiority 
of the hydrogen is primd facie very striking ; knowing also the fondness with which 
we all adhere to preconceived opinions, as the consideration of the action of spongy 
or clean platinum on mired gases led me to the discovery of the gas battery, I felt that 
I might be too apt to measure the correctness of my opinions by the success of the 
experiments to which they led, and therefore hesitated too confidently to rest upon 
what appeared to my mind positive demonstration. 
Having verified the rationale of the action of the gas battery, I now sought to ex- 
tend it to other gases, and caused arrangements of ten cells to be charged with such 
gases as were sufficiently insoluble to remain in the tubes time enough for experi- 
mental investigation. In all the following experiments, besides the ten cells charged 
in series, a single cell charged with similar gases and electrolyte was placed by the 
side, but with the terminals unconnected : thus, when the battery circuit had been 
closed for some time, by comparing the changes which had taken place in the battery 
tubes with those in the detached and unconnected pair, the effects due to solution, 
local currents, or other causes could be abstracted from those due to circulating 
voltaic action. 
I shall arrange the following experiments in the order in which I instituted them, 
making such comments as may be necessary to explain my own deductions from the 
resulting phenomena. When not otherwise mentioned, the electrolyte will be consi- 
dered as dilute sulphuric acid, sp. gr. T2. 
Experiment 8. — A battery charged with oxygen and protoxide of nitrogen pro- 
duced no effect upon iodide of potassium. Examined next day the liquid had not 
risen in the oxygen tubes ; in the protoxide tubes it had risen to an average of 03 
cubic inch, both in the battery and detached pair. 
Experiment 9. — Oxygen and deutoxide of nitrogen produced a slight effect upon 
the iodide ; the effect subsided after the circuit had been complete for a few minutes. 
On examining the battery after the circuit had been closed for twenty-four hours, 
* I see by a recent paper of Dr. Schcenbein that lie believes this to be the case. Archives de l’Electricite, 
No. 7, p. 73. 
