MR. DANIELL ON VOLTAIC COMBINATIONS. 
Ill 
making a connexion by means of a wire between the central cup and the exterior 
circle of mercury, the current was enabled to circulate, and was manifested by the 
simultaneous evolution of gas from all the cells. The inequality of action became 
again apparent, and the differences between the cells was nearly the same, as when 
they were connected in separate single circuits. 
The result of this arrangement was virtually the same as that of a single pair of 
platinum and zinc plates, exposing the same extent of surface as that of the ten pairs 
added together ; and the whole quantity of force generated in each cell must have 
passed through the single wire which connected the centre with the circumference in 
the progress of its circulation. 
By these two arrangements of the same elements of the battery, the relations of 
quantity and intensity in the circulating affinity are placed in a very striking point 
of view. Setting aside, as we may do in our present comparison, the inequalities to 
which I have just referred, the same quantity of force is generated and expended in 
the cells in both combinations : but when in series, no connecting wire conveys more 
than the quantity generated in one cell to the next ; whilst, in the single circuit, the 
whole quantity generated in all the cells must pass through the central connecting wire. 
This difference of quantity may be manifested by the elevation of temperature occa- 
sioned in a fine platinum wire when made the connecting medium of the latter com- 
bination, whilst the same wire will remain cold when employed for the same purpose 
in the former. On the other hand, the intensity of the force, though small in quan- 
tity, derived from the repeated impulses of the disposition in series, is shown by its 
projecting itself in the form of a spark through a break in the conductor ; whilst ten 
times the quantity of the same force is effectually arrested in the simple circle by the 
slightest disruption of the continuity of its metallic path for want of this accumulated 
energy. 
I proceeded next to combine the cells together in pairs, two platinum plates being 
connected, and two zinc ; and the five pairs were afterwards arranged in series by 
wires leading from each pair of zinc to the adjoining pair of platinum. The irregu- 
larity of action again disappeared ; the amount of gas was equal in all the volta- 
meters ; slightly exceeded that from the single-series arrangement ; but did not quite 
come up to the amount of the most energetic single cell. The arrangement was equi- 
valent to a series of five plates of double the standard size, and the quantity which 
circulated was determined by the least efficient pair. 
Leaving one pair of cells thus connected together, the others were again disunited, 
and recombined with it in single series ; the effect being that of a plate of double size 
interposed in a compound circuit with eight single. The gas collected in each of the 
voltameters of the double cell was exactly half of that in the several voltameters of 
the single cells ; proving that the double plate had been reduced in efficiency to the 
exact standard of the single plates by its combination with them. The regulating 
effect of the voltaic series, by which all irregularities of its elements are equalized, is 
