42 MR. GASS10T ON THE RELATION OF ELECTRICAL AND CHEMICAL ACTIONS 
p was found oppositely charged ; as was also an insulated carrier ball, when similarly 
treated. 
13. The plate a of the electroscope (fig'. 4) being retained in connection with one 
end of the battery, a piece of very thin mica was laid on it ; on this inica rested a 
wire W proceeding from a single-leaf electroscope (fig. 5), the disc ( d ) of which was 
in connection with the earth by means of a wire ; with this arrangement the gold 
leaf was electrified by induction, and struck against the disc ( d ) ; glass, lac and sulphur 
were in turn substituted for the mica, and the same general effects resulted. The 
same battery connection was maintained, the electroscope (fig. 5) being disconnected. 
An insulated carrier ball was successively applied to the plate a, and an unlimited 
succession of charges could be carried and accumulated to another electroscope : 
these charges were with equal facility obtained when the direct connection between 
the battery and the earth was broken ; the insulation of the battery was, however, 
comparatively imperfect ; and I shall therefore have occasion to revert to some of 
these results which I afterwards obtained less in degree, but equally definite in cha- 
racter, from a portion of the battery detached for the purpose of more efficient insu- 
lation ; for the present we need only allude to those effects, which do not absolutely 
involve the perfect insulations of the battery itself. When a Leyden jar, held in the 
hand, was subjected to the action of one end of the battery, a charge was readily 
accumulated, and, of course, still more favourably by means of a mica battery. When 
the coatings of a Leyden battery, consisting of twelve jars, with a surface of sixteen 
feet, were connected with the respective ends of the series, the accumulation of 
tension was considerable. 
14. With the entire battery, the tension was so great, that the leaves of a gold-leaf 
electroscope diverged when that instrument was placed within two or three inches of 
either end of the battery, or over any of the terminal cells. Advantage was taken of 
this to test, whether any effect of tension could be observed when the circuit was 
completed ; but the instant this was effected, the leaves of the electroscope as in- 
stantly collapsed, nor could I detect, either by the aid of the condenser, or otherwise, 
the slightest trace of tension ; it, however, immediately reappeared when the circuit 
was again broken. 
15. Thus far I have been examining the static effects of a moderate amount of 
tension, similar in kind to those which have been long familiar to the electrician, 
but modified so as to produce inductive effects, differing in some degree from any 
elsewhere recorded. My first experiment, after making every allowance for loss of 
electricity, or, as it would be better to express it, loss of tension through insufficient 
insulation, admits but of one interpretation: the interpretation itself is generally 
allowed, but the force of it is not, I believe, generally admitted ; it is, that the ele- 
ments constituting the voltaic battery, when arranged in series, assume polar tension 
before the circuit is completed ; and that in the apparatus above mentioned, this 
tension is such that a spark will pass before the circuit is completed. 
