THE BORDERLAND OF CHEMISTRY AUD ELECTRICITY. 
219 
As to the artificial production of electricity, instead of rubbing a 
piece of amber, I will rub this glass vacuum tube, and if the electrical 
force is produced, we shall see it visible in the interior of the tube as 
a phosphorescence—-(making the experiment)—'(applause). 
What is a vacuum ? It is well illustrated by what is known as a 
water-hammer. This glass tube I have here contains water from 
which the air has been driven by heat. At the point when all air has 
been driven from the interior of the tube and the mass of the water, 
the tube is hermetically sealed. The water absolutely touches the 
glass, the molecules of the water being in actual contact. There 
being no gas which may be termed an elastic fluid to prevent the 
whole weight of the water coming into contact with the glass suddenly, 
on turning the glass about the water will fall from one end to the 
other, and as it comes into contact with the glass surface the sound is 
like a piece of heavy metal falling on a like substance—(making the 
experiment)—(applause). 
If you placed your hand in absolute contact with this table, you 
would not remove it again without damaging the skin. A similar 
result is obtained by placing your hand on a hot piece of metal. The 
heat causes an attentuated atmosphere on the surface of the metal. 
On placing your finger there you come into actual contact—and you 
know the result. 
Professors Bunsen and Groves were the two scientists more especially 
connected with what is known as the electric or primary battery. 
By placing a piece of sheet zinc in acid, and a carbon plate in the 
same liquor, and attaching a wire to each plate and then pressing the 
ends of those wires together, a minute spark is seen. The action of 
the acid on the zinc and the splitting up of the solution at the carbon 
plate, produces a force which, being conveyed by the conducting wires 
attached to the plates, ultimately re-produces a chemical action, which 
may be heat, light, or power. The chemical action is illustrated by 
what is known as electrolysis, i.e., the splitting up of chemicals in 
solutions by means of what are known as electrodes. By placing two 
pieces of carbon in water and connecting them with the zinc and 
carbon in the acid, the water is split up into its elementary gas, oxygen 
and hydrogen. That action is the basis of all electrolytical phenomena. 
The zinc and carbon couple of the initial primary battery were the 
bases out of which all primary batteries have been evolutionised. 
Taking advantage of this, I carried out experiments in the year 1886, 
which ultimately led to my taking out patents for purifying impure 
liquids, chiefly by means of the electrolytical action of electrically- 
connected iron plates. My contention was and is that the great 
natural purifier of the soil is not only carbon but chiefly oxides and 
carbonates of iron. Carbon does not undergo chemical change, but 
the salts of iron in the earth do. Carbon has the property of 
absorbing a certain quantity of putrefying matter and the resultant 
gas, sulphuretted hydrogen, but the natural compounds of iron have 
the property of undergoing a chemical change and producing an 
