BEFORE AND AFTER COMPLETION OF THE VOLTAIC CIRCUIT. 41 
N and P are the terminals or poles of the battery. Fig. 2 is a single cell ; g, a glass 
vessel ; c, copper ; z, zinc. Fig. 3, one of the boards as it appears when removed from 
the entire series. Fig. 4, a double electroscope. Fig. 5, a Harris’s single-leaf elec- 
troscope. Fig. 6, another electroscope, having two separately insulated gold leaves, 
b V : in addition, I used a delicate galvanometer, and a solution of iodide of potassium 
for the detection of currents and of chemical action. The battery was charged, by 
carefully filling each cell with rain water. 
8. With all the precautions I have described, the insulation of the battery was still 
imperfect ; and, from the experience which I have gained during the construction of 
this apparatus, I have little hesitation in asserting, that the very nature of the water 
battery must prevent the experimentalist from obtaining insulation for any lengthened 
period, when such an extended series is employed. 
9. In proceeding to describe the effects which this apparatus has presented, I must 
endeavour to draw a distinct line of demarcation between the static and the dynamic 
effects ; for although these are, in a certain sense, both associated in some forms of 
electric development, yet as I have been enabled in a degree to isolate them here, it 
is my intention to regard them separately. 
10. We know, from the very earliest experiments, that the extremities of a voltaic 
pile present opposite electrical states ; it is therefore stating no new fact, to say that 
when one extremity of the series is connected with the ground, the other, on being 
connected with a gold-leaf electroscope, indicates a high degree of electric tension, 
and that the gold leaves diverge with considerable energy. Indeed, in the battery 
above described, there was little need of making connection with the ground ; for, 
with all my precautions, I found the insulation was in a short time very imperfect, 
and that, by this communication with the earth, a complete circuit, to a certain 
extent, already existed. 
11. As the static effects present themselves antecedently to the dynamic , they 
necessarily demand the first notice. The entire battery was connected in one series, 
and copper wires from the extreme cells were connected with the plates a and b of 
the double electroscope (fig. 4) ; this instantly produced a considerable and steady 
divergence of the gold leaves ; and, on applying the usual tests, the plate b , connected 
with the copper extremity, gave signs of vitreous, and a, connected with the zinc, of 
resinous electricity. If a was connected with one extremity of the battery, and the 
other extremity was connected or not with the ground, the same general effects 
occurred ; the divergence of the leaves corresponded with the connection, and the 
leaves of b diverged by induction ; if, in this state, b was touched and then removed 
from the influence of a, it was found charged with the opposite electricity. 
12. These inductive effects were obtained under other forms; for instance, the 
condensing plate ( p ), which had been removed during the preceding experiments, 
was opposed to the charged plate a. When a alone was connected with the bat- 
tery, and/> was touched, while under the influence of induction, and then removed, 
MDCCCXLIV. G 
