PERFECTION OF CROSSE’S APPARATUS. 
677 
20 times in a minute, with reports as loud 
as cannon, which, being continuous, were 
so terrible to strangers that they always 
fled, while every one expected the destruc- 
tion of himself and premises. He was, 
however, he said, used to it, and knew 
how to manage and control it ; but wlien it 
got into a passion, he coolly turned his in- 
sulating lever, and conducted the lightning 
into the ground. It was a damp day, and 
we regretted that our courage could not be 
put to the test, 
“ Every thing about this part of Mr. 
Crosse’s apparatus is perfect, and much of 
it his own contrivance, for he is clever in all 
mechanical arrangements, and has been 
unwearied in his application, almost night 
and day, for 30 years past. I learned, too, 
that in the purchase and fitting of his ap- 
paratus, he has expended nearly ^3,000, 
although in most cases he is his own ma- 
nipulator, carpenter, smith, copper-smith, 
&c. 
•‘About 12, Professor Sedgwick arrived* 
and in the afternoon one or two others, besides 
seven or eight gentlemen of the neighbour- 
hood, who had been invited to meet us at 
dinner, for Mr. Crosse unites to the rank 
of Esquire that of a country magistrate, in 
the duties of which he is respected alike for 
his humanity to^the poor, and for his libe- 
ral opinions in politics. Mrs. Crosse I had 
not the pleasure of seeing, one of the sons 
being ill. Mr. Crosse himself was educated 
at Oxford, and his second son holds the liv- 
ing of Broomfield. He is master of all his 
father’s experiments, and, in spite of the 
complaints of an Oxford education, I found 
him to be a very expert mathematician, well 
read, and variously accomplished. At seven 
o’clock we enjoyed a dinner as well served 
as I ever saw any state-dinner in London, and 
beds being reserved for Pi’ofessor Sedgwick 
and myself, we next morning renewed 
our survey, previous to fresh arrivals ; and 
I took notes of every thing connected with 
his aqueous voltaic batteries, in the following 
order, errors excepted : — 
“ 1. A battery of 100 pairs, of 25 square 
inches, charged like all the rest with water, 
operating on cups containing 1 oz. of car- 
bonate of barytes and powdered sulphate of 
alumine intended to form sulphate of bary- 
tes at the positive pole and crystals of alu- 
mine at the negative. 
“ 2. A battery of 11 cylindrical pairs, 12 
inches by 4. This, by operating six months 
on fluate of silver, had produced large 
hexahedral crystals at the negative pole, 
and crystals of silica and chalcedony at the 
positive. 
“ 3. A battery of 100 pairs, of 4 square 
inches, operating on slate 832, and platina 
3, to produce hexagonal crystals at the 
positive pole. 
“ 4. A battery of 100 pairs, 5 inches 
square, operating on nitrate of silver and 
copper, to produce malachite at the positive 
pole ; at the negative pole, crystals already 
appear with decided angles and faces. 
“5. A battery of 16 pairs, of 2 inches, 
in small glass jai's, actingon a weaksolution 
of nitrate of silver, and already producing a 
compact vegetation of native silver. 
6. “ A battery, esteemed his best, of 813 
pairs, 5 inches, insulated on glass plates on 
deal bars, coated with cement, and so slightly 
oxydated by water as to require cleaning 
but once or twice a year, by pumping on 
them. I felt the effect of 458 pairs in 
careless order and imperfectly liquidated, 
and they gave only some tinglings, but this 
power in a few weeks pi-oduces decided 
effects. 
“ 7. A battery of 12 pairs, 25 inches zinc 
and 36 copper, charged 2 months before 
with water, and acting on a solution of ni- 
trate of silver, poured on green bottle-glass 
coarsely powdered. It had already pro- 
duced a vegetation of silver at the positive 
pole. 
“ 8. A battery of 159 galley-pots, with 
semi-circular plates of 1§ inch radius placed 
on glass plates, and acting for five months, 
through a small piece of Bridgewater po- 
rous brick, on a solution of silex and potash. 
I saw at the pole small crystals of quartz. 
“ 9. A battery of 30 pairs, similar to No. 
8, acting since July 27, on a mixture, in a 
mortar, of sulphate of lead, of white oxide, 
of antimony, of sulphate of copper, and of 
green sulphate of iron (205 grains), and 
three times the whole of green bottle-glass 
(615 grains). The result has been in five 
weeks, a precipitation, on the negative wire, 
of pure copper in two days, and crystallized 
iron pyrites in four days. It had been ex- 
pected to produce sulphurets of lead, cop- 
per, and antimony, by depriving the sul- 
phates of their oxygen. On August lOth 
and 28th, 25 grains and 40 grains of sul- 
phate of iron were added. 
“ 10. A battery of 5 jars, with plates of 
different metals, as two copper and platina, 
one of lead and lead, and one silver and 
iron, and one copper and lead. — Experi- 
mental. 
“11, 12, and 13. About 200 pairs, in 
three batteries, working in a dark room, of 
which I took no note. 
“ While I was an inmate with Mr Crosse, 
•we had various conversations about the 
