328 ME. a. GOEE ON THE PEOPEETIES OP ELEOTEO-DEPO SITED ANTEMONY. 
discharging its heat by a heated wire, the thermic change was unusually rapid and 
strong, shattering the metal throughout into scaly particles with almost explosive 
violence. The shattered mass consisted of parallel scaly layers, possessing an angular 
position with regard to the receiving surface, their horizontal edges pointing upwards at 
an angle of about 40° towards the surface of the liquid. 
114. Two deposits were also simultaneously formed, both of the black amorphous 
kind, but at equal and nearly uniform rates of deposition, viz. 0’55 gr. per square inch 
per hour, upon cathodes of equal size and at equal distances from the anodes, by two 
separate currents, in a similar solution to that of the previous experiment (110.) con- 
tained in a single vessel, one current being generated by one Smee’s element of large 
surface, and the other by twenty of small surface, the exciting liquid in each battery 
being the same, and the plates the same distance asunder. Both the deposits appeared 
alike, except that the one formed by the single element had a few small nodules of grey 
metal formed upon it during the latter part of the process. The active deposit formed 
by the twenty elements lost 7'4 per cent, by fusion in the analysis-tube (82.), and 2'7 per- 
cent. by discharging it in the air at 60° Fahr. by a heated wire ; and that formed by the 
single element lost respectively 7-1 and 1-86 per cent, under similar circumstances. 
These differences of results in the two cases may have been due to other cii-cumstances 
than the difference of number of elements. 
115. It has been already shown (66. 75. 83.) that the discharge of heat may take 
place gradually, or even in fragmentary portions, by careful management of the tempera- 
ture in an air-bath, or easily by immersing the substance for a greater or less period of 
time in boiling water. By suitable treatment, different parts of a given piece of the 
active substance may also be either wholly or partly discharged of their heat. In one 
instance about f tbs of an inch of the lower end of an active bar, 2 inches long, an inch 
wide, and i^ths of an inch thick, was immersed in cold water, the water heated to 
boiling in 6 minutes, and kept boiling 20 minutes; the lower end was then found to 
have lost its heating power, whilst the upper end remained unaltered ; and in several 
other similar experiments similar results were obtained. In these and all other cases 
where the active substance was slowly discharged, the substance became much harder 
and much more difficult to break. 
116. The thermo-electric relation of the changed to the unchanged substance was 
examined as follows : — Two similar active bars were made of 
the shape of the annexed figure, containing small silver studs / , -x\ 
(A and B) in their extremities, enclosed by the antimony 
during the process of deposition ; one bar was discharged of 
its heat gradually by immersing it in boiling water one hour; 
it was then placed parallel to the other, but separated by bits of cork and india-rubber; 
the two studs at one end of the compound bar were connected together by silver wire, 
and that end immersed in a solution of chloride of calcium at 60° Fahr. ; the other 
studs and ends, being previously connected by silver wires with a galvanometer, were 
Scale ^tli. 
A 
B 
