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resisting medium, for even with the best air-pumps it is impossible to make a perfect void; he is still occupied with experiments on this new subject, and no doubt will obtain very remarkable results, of which none can be more extraordinary than his discovery of the powerful influence of the magnet on this electric light. The stratifications are formed in rapid succession in the tube with platinum wires and are turned different ways, but they can be separated at any part of the tube by the pole of a magnet round which the whole stratifications have a tendency to revolve. In the second experiment, where the tinfoil was used, the discharge was divided in two by the pole of a magnet, and the two parts had a tendency to rotate round the magnet in opposite directions.

Voltaic electricity is a powerful agent in chemical analysis. When transmitted through conducting fluids, it separates them into their constituent parts, which it conveys in an invisible state through a considerable space or quantity of liquid to the poles, where they come into evidence. Numerous instances might be given, but the decomposition of water is perhaps the most simple and elegant. Suppose a glass tube filled with water, and corked at both ends; if one of the wires of an active Voltaic battery be made to pass through one cork, and the other through the other cork, into the water, so that the extremities of the two wires shall be opposite and about a quarter of an inch asunder, chemical action will immediately take place, and gas will continue to rise from the extremities of both wires till the water has vanished. If an electric spark be then sent through the tube, the water will reappear. By arranging the experiment so as to have the gas given out by each wire separately, it is found that water consists of two volumes of hydrogen and one of oxygen. The hydrogen is given out at the positive wire of the battery, and the oxygen at the negative. The oxides are also decomposed; the oxygen appears at the positive pole, and the metal at the negative. The decomposition of the alkalies and earths by Sir Humphry Davy formed a remarkable era in the history of science. Soda, potass, lime, magnesia, and other substances heretofore considered to be simple bodies incapable of decomposition, were resolved by electric agency into their constituent parts, and proved to be metallic oxides, by that illustrious philosopher. All chemical changes produced by electricity are accomplished on the same principle; and it appears that, in general, combustible

substances, metals, and alkalies go to the negative wire, while acids and oxygen are evolved at the positive. The transfer of these substances to the poles is not the least wonderful effect of the Voltaic battery. Though the poles be at a considerable distance from one another, nay, even in separate vessels, if a communication be only established by a quantity of wet thread, as the decomposition proceeds the component parts pass through the thread in an invisible state, and arrange themselves at their respective poles. According to Dr. Faraday, electro-chemical decomposition is simply a case of the preponderance of one set of chemical affinities more powerful in their nature over another set which are less powerful. And in electro-chemical action of any kind produced by a continuous current, the amount of action in a given time is nearly, if not rigorously, proportional to the strength of the current. The great efficacy of Voltaic electricity in chemical decomposition arises not from its tension, but from the quantity set in motion and the continuance of its action. Its agency appears to be most exerted on fluids and substances which by conveying the electricity partially and imperfectly impede its progress. But it is now proved to be as efficacious in the composition as in the decomposition or analysis of bodies.

It had been observed that, when metallic solutions are subjected to galvanic action, a deposition of metal, sometimes in the form of minute crystals, takes place on the negative wire. By extending this principle, and employing a very feeble Voltaic action, M. Becquerel has succeeded in forming crystals of a great proportion of the mineral substances, precisely similar to those produced by nature. The electric state of metallic veins makes it possible that many natural crystals may have taken their form from the action of electricity bringing their ultimate particles, when in solution, within the narrow sphere of molecular attraction. Both light and motion favour crystallization. Crystals which form in different liquids are generally more abundant on the side of the jar exposed to the light; and it is well known that still water, cooled below 320, starts into crystals of ice the instant it is agitated. A feeble action is alone necessary, proIvided it be continued for a sufficient time. Crystals formed rapidly are generally imperfect and soft, and M. Becquerel found that even years of constant Voltaic action were necessary for the

crystallization of some of the hard substances. If this law be general, how many ages may be required for the formation of a diamond!

The deposition of metal from a metallic solution by galvanic electricity has been most successfully applied to the arts of plating and gilding, as well as to the more delicate process of copying medals and copper plates. Indeed, not medals only, but any object of art or nature, may be coated with precipitated metal, provided it be first covered with the thinnest film of plumbago, which renders a non-conductor sufficiently conducting to receive the metal. Photo-galvanic engraving depends upon this. Gelatine mixed with bichromate of potash, nitrate of silver, and iodide of potassium, is spread over a plate of glass, and when dry a positive print is laid upon it with its face downwards, which, when exposed to the sun, leaves its impression. When soaked in water the gelatine swells around all those parts where the light had fallen, thus forming an intaglio, a cast of which is taken in gutta-percha, which is then coated with copper by the electro process, whence a copper plate in relief is obtained.

Static electricity, on account of its high tension, passes through water and other liquids as soon as it is formed, whatever the length of its course may be. Voltaic electricity, on the contrary, is weakened by the distance it has to traverse. Pure water is a very bad conductor; but ice absolutely stops a current of Voltaic electricity altogether, whatever be the power of the battery, although static or common electricity has sufficient power to overcome its resistance. Dr. Faraday has discovered that this property is not peculiar to ice; that, with a few exceptions, bodies which do not conduct electricity when solid acquire that property, and are immediately decomposed, when they become fluid, and, in general, that decomposition takes place as soon as the solution acquires the capacity of conduction, which has led him to suspect that the power of conduction may be only a consequence of decomposition.

Heat increases the conducting power of some substances for Voltaic electricity, and of the gases for both kinds. Dr. Faraday has given a new proof of the connexion between heat and electricity, by showing that, in general, when a solid, which is not a metal, becomes fluid, it almost entirely loses its power of con

ducting heat, while it acquires a capacity for conducting electricity in a high degree. M. Becquerel regards the production of heat and that of electricity to be concomitant; their dependence being such, that when one is increased the other diminishes, and vice versa, so that one may altogether disappear with thẹ increase of the other. For instance, when electricity circulates in a metallic wire, the greater the heat produced, the less the quantity of electricity which passes, and the contrary, so that the affair proceeds as if electricity were converted into heat, and heat into electricity. Again, in a closed galvanic circuit the sum of the heat produced in the chemical action of the acidulated water upon the zinc and in the conducting wire is constant, so that the quantity of heat disengaged in the reaction is greater in proportion as less electricity passes through the wire. These, and other circumstances, prove such an intimate connexion between the production of heat and electricity, that in the change of condition of substances the electrical effects might disappear or be annulled by the calorific effects.

The galvanic current affects all the senses: nothing can be more disagreeable than the shock, which may even be fatal if the battery be very powerful. A bright flash of light is perceived with the eyes shut, when one of the wires touches the face, and the other the hand. By touching the ear with one wire, and holding the other, strange noises are heard; and an acid taste is perceived when the positive wire is applied to the tip of the tongue, and the negative wire touches some other part of it. By reversing the poles the taste becomes alkaline. It renders the pale light of the glow-worm more intense. Dead animals are roused by it, as if they started again into life, and it may ultimately prove to be the cause of muscular action in the living.

Several fish possess the faculty of producing electrical effects. The most remarkable are the gymnotus electricus, found in South America; and the torpedo, a genus of ray, frequent in the Mediterranean. The electrical action of the torpedo depends upon an apparatus apparently analogous to the Voltaic pile, which the animal has the power of charging at will, consisting of membranous columns filled throughout with laminæ, separated from one another by a fluid. The absolute quantity of electricity brought into circulation by the torpedo is so great, that it effects

the decomposition of water, has power sufficient to make magnets, gives very severe shocks and the electric spark. It is identical in kind with that of the galvanic battery, the electricity of the under surface of the fish being the same with the negative pole, and that in the upper surface the same with the positive pole. Its manner of action is, however, somewhat different; for, although the evolution of the electricity is continued for a sensible time, it is interrupted, being communicated by a succession of discharges.

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