Experimental Researches in Electricity Part 30

1020. The effects of r.e.t.a.r.dation just described were altered altogether when changes were made in the _nature of the liquid_ used between the plates, either in what may be called the _exciting_ or the _r.e.t.a.r.ding_ cells. Thus, retaining the exciting force the same, by still using pure dilute sulphuric acid for that purpose, if a little nitric acid were added to the liquid in the _r.e.t.a.r.ding_ cells, then the transmission of the current was very much facilitated. For instance, in the experiment with one pair of exciting plates and one intervening plate (1011.), fig. 92, when a few drops of nitric acid were added to the contents of cell ii, then the current of electricity pa.s.sed with considerable strength (though it soon fell from other causes (1036; 1040.),) and the same increased effect was produced by the nitric acid when many interposed plates were used.

1021. This seems to be a consequence of the diminution of the difficulty of decomposing water when its hydrogen, instead of being absolutely expelled, as in the former cases, is transferred to the oxygen of the nitric acid, producing a secondary result at the _cathode_ (752.); for in accordance with the chemical views of the electric current and its action already advanced (913.), the water, instead of opposing a resistance to decomposition equal to the full amount of the force of mutual attraction between its oxygen and hydrogen, has that force counteracted in part, and therefore diminished by the attraction of the hydrogen at the _cathode_ for the oxygen of the nitric acid which surrounds it, and with which it ultimately combines instead of being evolved in its free state.

1022. When a little nitric acid was put into the exciting cells, then again the circ.u.mstances favouring the transmission of the current were strengthened, for the _intensity_ of the current itself was increased by the addition (906.). When therefore a little nitric acid was added to both the _exciting_ and the _r.e.t.a.r.ding_ cells, the current of electricity pa.s.sed with very considerable freedom.

1023. When dilute muriatic acid was used, it produced and transmitted a current more easily than pure dilute sulphuric acid, but not so readily as dilute nitric acid. As muriatic acid appears to be decomposed more freely than water (765.), and as the affinity of zinc for chlorine is very powerful, it might be expected to produce a current more intense than that from the use of dilute sulphuric acid; and also to transmit it more freely by undergoing decomposition at a lower intensity (912.).

1024. In relation to the effect of these interpositions, it is necessary to state that they do not appear to be at all dependent upon the size of the electrodes, or their distance from each other in the acid, except that when a current _can pa.s.s_, changes in these facilitate or r.e.t.a.r.d its pa.s.sage.

For on repeating the experiment with one intervening and one pair of exciting plates (1011.), fig. 92, and in place of the interposed plate P using sometimes a mere wire, and sometimes very large plates (1008.), and also changing the terminal exciting plates Z and P, so that they were sometimes wires only and at others of great size, still the results were the same as those already obtained.

1025. In ill.u.s.tration of the effect of distance, an experiment like that described with two exciting pairs and one intervening plate (1012.), fig.

93, was arranged so that the distance between the plates in the third cell could be increased to six or eight inches, or diminished to the thickness of a piece of intervening bibulous paper. Still the result was the same in both cases, the effect not being sensibly greater, when the plates were merely separated by the paper, than when a great way apart; so that the princ.i.p.al opposition to the current in this case does not depend upon the _quant.i.ty_ of intervening electrolytic conductor, but on the _relation of its elements to the intensity of the current_, or to the chemical nature of the electrodes and the surrounding fluids.

1026. When the acid was sulphuric acid, _increasing its strength_ in any of the cells, caused no change in the effects; it did not produce a more intense current in the exciting cells (908.), or cause the current produced to traverse the decomposing cells more freely. But if to very weak sulphuric acid a few drops of nitric acid were added, then either one or other of those effects could be produced; and, as might be expected in a case like this, where the exciting or conducting action bore a _direct_ reference to the acid itself, increasing the strength of this (the nitric acid), also increased its powers.

1027. The _nature of the interposed plate_ was now varied to show its relation to the phenomena either of excitation or r.e.t.a.r.dation, and amalgamated zinc was first subst.i.tuted for platina. On employing one voltaic pair and one interposed zinc plate, fig. 100, there was as powerful a current, apparently, as if the interposed zinc plate was away. Hydrogen was evolved against P in cell ii, and against the side of the second zinc in cell i; but no gas appeared against the side of the zinc in cell ii, nor against the zinc in cell i.

1028. On interposing two amalgamated zinc plates, fig. 101, instead of one, there was still a powerful current, but interference had taken place. On using three intermediate zinc plates, fig. 102, there was still further r.e.t.a.r.dation, though a good current of electricity pa.s.sed.

1029. Considering the r.e.t.a.r.dation as due to the inaction of the amalgamated zinc upon the dilute acid, in consequence of the slight though general effect of diminished chemical power produced by the mercury on the surface, and viewing this inaction as the circ.u.mstance which rendered it necessary that each plate should have its tendency to decompose water a.s.sisted slightly by the electric current, it was expected that plates of the metal in the unamalgamated state would probably not require such a.s.sistance, and would offer no sensible impediment to the pa.s.sing of the current. This expectation was fully realized in the use of two and three interposed unamalgamated plates. The electric current pa.s.sed through them as freely as if there had been no such plates in the way. They offered no obstacle, because they could decompose water without the current; and the latter had only to give direction to a part of the forces, which would have been active whether it had pa.s.sed or not.

1030. Interposed plates of copper were then employed. These seemed at first to occasion no obstruction, but after a few minutes the current almost entirely ceased. This effect appears due to the surfaces taking up that peculiar condition (1010.) by which they tend to produce a reverse current; for when one or more of the plates were turned round, which could easily be effected with the couronne des ta.s.ses form of experiment, fig. 90, then the current was powerfully renewed for a few moments, and then again ceased.

Plates of platina and copper, arranged as a voltaic pile with dilute sulphuric acid, could not form a voltaic trough competent to act for more than a _few_ minutes, because of this peculiar counteracting effect.

1031. All these effects of r.e.t.a.r.dation, exhibited by decomposition against surfaces for which the evolved elements have more or less affinity, or are altogether deficient in attraction, show generally, though beautifully, the chemical relations and source of the current, and also the balanced state of the affinities at the places of excitation and decomposition. In this way they add to the ma.s.s of evidence in favour of the ident.i.ty of the two; for they demonstrate, as it were, the antagonism of the _chemical powers_ at the electromotive part with the _chemical powers_ at the interposed parts; they show that the first are _producing_ electric effects, and the second _opposing_ them; they bring the two into direct relation; they prove that either can determine the other, thus making what appears to be cause and effect convertible, and thereby demonstrating that both chemical and electrical action are merely two exhibitions of one single agent or power (916. &c.).

1032. It is quite evident, that as water and other electrolytes can conduct electricity without suffering decomposition (986.), when the electricity is of sufficiently low intensity, it may not be a.s.serted as absolutely true in all cases, that whenever electricity pa.s.ses through an electrolyte, it produces a definite effect of decomposition. But the quant.i.ty of electricity which can pa.s.s in a given time through an electrolyte without causing decomposition, is so small as to bear no comparison to that required in a case of very moderate decomposition, and with electricity above the intensity required for electrolyzation, I have found no sensible departure as yet from the law of _definite electrolytic action_ developed in the preceding series of these Researches (783. &c.).

1033. I cannot dismiss this division of the present Paper without making a reference to the important experiments of M. Aug. De la Rive on the effects of interposed plates[A]. As I have had occasion to consider such plates merely as giving rise to new decompositions, and in that way only causing obstruction to the pa.s.sage of the electric current, I was freed from the necessity of considering the peculiar effects described by that philosopher. I was the more willing to avoid for the present touching upon these, as I must at the same time have entered into the views of Sir Humphry Davy upon the same subject[B] and also those of Marianini[C] and Hitter[D], which are connected with it.

[A] Annales de Chimie, tom. xxviii. p 190; and Memoires de Geneve.

[B] Philosophical Transactions, 1826, p. 413.

[C] Annales de Chimie, tom. x.x.xiii. pp. 117, 119, &c.

[D] Journal de Physique, tom. lvii. pp. 319, 350.

-- v. _General Remarks on the active Voltaic Battery._

1034. When the ordinary voltaic battery is brought into action, its very activity produces certain effects, which re-act upon it, and cause serious deterioration of its power. These render it an exceedingly inconstant instrument as to the _quant.i.ty_ of effect which it is capable of producing.

They are already, in part, known and understood; but as their importance, and that of certain other coincident results, will be more evident by reference to the principles and experiments already stated and described, I have thought it would be useful, in this investigation of the voltaic pile, to notice them briefly here.

1035. When the battery is in action, it causes such substances to be formed and arranged in contact with the plates as very much weaken its power, or even tend to produce a counter current. They are considered by Sir Humphry Davy as sufficient to account for the phenomena of Ritter's secondary piles, and also for the effects observed by M.A. De la Rive with interposed platina plates[A].

[A] Philosophical Transactions, 1826, p. 113.

1036. I have already referred to this consequence (1003.), as capable, in some cases, of lowering the force of the current to one-eighth or one-tenth of what it was at the first moment, and have met with instances in which its interference was very great. In an experiment in which one voltaic pair and one interposed platina plate were used with dilute sulphuric acid in the cells fig. 103, the wires of communication were so arranged, that the end of that marked 3 could be placed at pleasure upon paper moistened in the solution of iodide of pota.s.sium at _x_, or directly upon the platina plate there. If, after an interval during which the circuit had not been complete, the wire 3 were placed upon the paper, there was evidence of a current, decomposition ensued, and the galvanometer was affected. If the wire 3 were made to touch the metal of _p_, a comparatively strong sudden current was produced, affecting the galvanometer, but lasting only for a moment; the effect at the galvanometer ceased, and if the wire 3 were placed on the paper at _x_, no signs of decomposition occurred. On raising the wire 3, and breaking the circuit altogether for a while, the apparatus resumed its first power, requiring, however, from five to ten minutes for this purpose; and then, as before, on making contact between 3 and _p_, there was again a momentary current, and immediately all the effects apparently ceased.

1037. This effect I was ultimately able to refer to the state of the film of fluid in contact with the zinc plate in cell i. The acid of that film is instantly neutralized by the oxide formed; the oxidation of the zinc cannot, of course, go on with the same facility as before; and the chemical action being thus interrupted, the voltaic action diminishes with it. The time of the rest was required for the diffusion of the liquid, and its replacement by other acid. From the serious influence of this cause in experiments with single pairs of plates of different metals, in which I was at one time engaged, and the extreme care required to avoid it, I cannot help feeling a strong suspicion that it interferes more frequently and extensively than experimenters are aware of, and therefore direct their attention to it.

1038. In considering the effect in delicate experiments of this source of irregularity of action, in the voltaic apparatus, it must be remembered that it is only that very small portion of matter which is directly in contact with the oxidizable metal which has to be considered with reference to the change of its nature; and this portion is not very readily displaced from its position upon the surface of the metal (582. 605.), especially if that metal be rough and irregular. In ill.u.s.tration of this effect, I will quote a remarkable experiment. A burnished platina plate (569.) was put into hot strong sulphuric acid for an instant only: it was then put into distilled water, moved about in it, taken out, and wiped dry: it was put into a second portion of distilled water, moved about in it, and again wiped: it was put into a third portion of distilled water, in which it was moved about for nearly eight seconds; it was then, without wiping, put into a fourth portion of distilled water, where it was allowed to remain five minutes. The two latter portions of water were then tested for sulphuric acid; the third gave no sensible appearance of that substance, but the fourth gave indications which were not merely evident, but abundant for the circ.u.mstances under which it had been introduced. The result sufficiently shows with what difficulty that portion of the substance which is in _contact_ with the metal leaves it; and as the contact of the fluid formed against the plate in the voltaic circuit must be as intimate and as perfect as possible, it is easy to see how quickly and greatly it must vary from the general fluid in the cells, and how influential in diminishing the force of the battery this effect must be.

1039. In the ordinary voltaic pile, the influence of this effect will occur in all variety of degrees. The extremities of a trough of twenty pairs of plates of Wollaston's construction were connected with the volta-electrometer, fig. 66. (711.), of the Seventh Series of these Researches, and after five minutes the number of bubbles of gas issuing from the extremity of the tube, in consequence of the decomposition of the water, noted. Without moving the plates, the acid between the copper and zinc was agitated by the introduction of a feather. The bubbles were immediately evolved more rapidly, above twice the number being produced in the same portion of time as before. In this instance it is very evident that agitation by a feather must have been a very imperfect mode of restoring the acid in the cells against the plates towards its first equal condition; and yet imperfect as the means were, they more than doubled the power of the battery. The _first effect_ of a battery which is known to be so superior to the degree of action which the battery can sustain, is almost entirely due to the favourable condition of the acid in contact with the plates.

1040. A _second_ cause of diminution in the force of the voltaic battery, consequent upon its own action, is that extraordinary state of the surfaces of the metals (969.) which was first described, I believe, by Ritter[A], to which he refers the powers of his secondary piles, and which has been so well experimented upon by Marianini, and also by A. De la Rive. If the apparatus, fig. 103. (1096.), be left in action for an hour or two, with the wire 3 in contact with the plate _p_, so as to allow a free pa.s.sage for the current, then, though the contact be broken for ten or twelve minutes, still, upon its renewal, only a feeble current will pa.s.s, not at all equal in force to what might be expected. Further, if P^{1} and P^{2} be connected by a metal wire, a powerful momentary current will pa.s.s from P^{2} to P^{1} through the acid, and therefore in the reverse direction to that produced by the action of the zinc in the arrangement; and after this has happened, the general current can pa.s.s through the whole of the system as at first, but by its pa.s.sage again restores the plates P^{2} and P^{1} into the former opposing condition. This, generally, is the fact described by Ritter, Marianini, and De la Rive. It has great opposing influence on the action of a pile, especially if the latter consist of but a small number of alternations, and has to pa.s.s its current through many interpositions. It varies with the solution in which the interposed plates are immersed, with the intensity of the current, the strength of the pile, the time of action, and especially with accidental discharges of the plates by inadvertent contacts or reversions of the plates during experiments, and must be carefully watched in every endeavour to trace the source, strength, and variations of the voltaic current. Its effect was avoided in the experiments already described (1036. &c.), by making contact between the plates P^{1} and P^{2} before the effect dependent upon the state of the solution in contact with the zinc plate was observed, and by other precautions.

[A] Journal de Physique, lvii. p. 349.

1041. When an apparatus like fig. 98. (1017.) with several platina plates was used, being connected with a battery able to force a current through them, the power which they acquired, of producing a reversed current, was very considerable.

1042. _Weak and exhausted charges_ should never be used at the same time with _strong and fresh ones_ in the different cells of a trough, or the different troughs of a battery: the fluid in all the cells should be alike, else the plates in the weaker cells, in place of a.s.sisting, r.e.t.a.r.d the pa.s.sage of the electricity generated in, and transmitted across, the stronger cells. Each zinc plate so circ.u.mstanced has to be a.s.sisted in decomposing power before the whole current can pa.s.s between it and the liquid. So, that, if in a battery of fifty pairs of plates, ten of the cells contain a weaker charge than the others, it is as if ten decomposing plates were opposed to the transit of the current of forty pairs of generating plates (1031.). Hence a serious loss of force, and hence the reason why, if the ten pairs of plates were removed, the remaining forty pairs would be much more powerful than the whole fifty.

1043. Five similar troughs, of ten pairs of plates each, were prepared, four of them with a good uniform charge of acid, and the fifth with the partially neutralized acid of a used battery. Being arranged in right order, and connected with a volta-electrometer (711.), the whole fifty pairs of plates yielded 1.1 cubic inch of oxygen and hydrogen in one minute: but on moving one of the connecting wires so that only the four well-charged troughs should be included in the circuit, they produced with the same volta-electrometer 8.4 cubical inches of gas in the same time.

Nearly seven-eighths of the power of the four troughs had been lost, therefore, by their a.s.sociation with the fifth trough.

1044. The same battery of fifty pairs of plates, after being thus used, was connected with a volta-electrometer (711.), so that by quickly shifting the wires of communication, the current of the whole of the battery, or of any portion of it, could be made to pa.s.s through the instrument for given portions of time in succession. The whole of the battery evolved 0.9 of a cubic inch of oxygen and hydrogen in half a minute; the forty plates evolved 4.6 cubic inches in the same time; the whole then evolved 1 cubic inch in the half-minute; the ten weakly charged evolved 0.4 of a cubic inch in the time given: and finally the whole evolved 1.15 cubic inch in the standard time. The order of the observations was that given: the results sufficiently show the extremely injurious effect produced by the mixture of strong and weak charges in the same battery[A].

[A] The gradual increase in the action of the whole fifty pairs of plates was due to the elevation of temperature in the weakly charged trough by the pa.s.sage of the current, in consequence of which the exciting energies of the fluid within were increased.

1045. In the same manner a.s.sociations of _strong and weak_ pairs of plates should be carefully avoided. A pair of copper and platina plates arranged in _accordance_ with a pair of zinc and platina plates in dilute sulphuric acid, were found to stop the action of the latter, or even of two pairs of the latter, as effectually almost as an interposed plate of platina (1011.), or as if the copper itself had been platina. It, in fact, became an interposed decomposing plate, and therefore a r.e.t.a.r.ding instead of an a.s.sisting pair.

1046. The _reversal_, by accident or otherwise, of the plates in a battery has an exceedingly injurious effect. It is not merely the counteraction of the current which the reversed plates can produce, but their effect also in r.e.t.a.r.ding even as indifferent plates, and requiring decomposition to be effected upon their surface, in _accordance_ with the course of the current, before the latter can pa.s.s. They oppose the current, therefore, in the first place, as interposed platina plates would do (1011-1018.); and to this they add a force of opposition as counter-voltaic plates. I find that, in a series of four pairs of zinc and platina plates in dilute sulphuric acid, if one pair be reversed, it very nearly neutralizes the power of the whole.

1047. There are many other causes of reaction, r.e.t.a.r.dation, and irregularity in the voltaic battery. Amongst them is the not unusual one of precipitation of copper upon the zinc in the cells, the injurious effect of which has before been adverted to (1006.). But their interest is not perhaps sufficient to justify any increase of the length of this paper, which is rather intended to be an investigation of the theory of the voltaic pile than a particular account of its practical application[A].

[A] For further practical results relating to these points of the philosophy of the voltaic battery, see Series X. -- 17.

1163.--1160.--_Dec. 1838._

_Note_.--Many of the views and experiments in this Series of my Experimental Researches will be seen at once to be corrections and extensions of the theory of electro-chemical decomposition, given in the Fifth and Seventh Series of these Researches. The expressions I would now alter are those which concern the independence of the evolved elements in relation to the poles or electrodes, and the reference of their evolution to powers entirely internal (524. 537. 661.). The present paper fully shows my present views; and I would refer to paragraphs 891. 904. 910. 917. 918.

947. 963. 1007. 1031. &c., as stating what they are. I hope this note will be considered as sufficient in the way of correction at present; for I would rather defer revising the whole theory of electro-chemical decomposition until I can obtain clearer views of the way in which the power under consideration can appear at one time as a.s.sociated with particles giving them their chemical attraction, and at another as free electricity (493. 957.).--M.F.

_Royal Inst.i.tution, March 31st, 1834._

NINTH SERIES.

-- 15. _On the influence by induction of an Electric Current on itself:--and on the inductive action of Electric Currents generally._

Received December 18, 1834,--Read January 29, 1835.

1048. The following investigations relate to a very remarkable inductive action of electric currents, or of the different parts of the same current (74.), and indicate an immediate connexion between such inductive action and the direct transmission of electricity through conducting bodies, or even that exhibited in the form of a spark.

1049. The inquiry arose out of a fact communicated to me by Mr. Jenkin, which is as follows. If an ordinary wire of short length be used as the medium of communication between the two plates of an electromotor consisting of a single pair of metals, no management will enable the experimenter to obtain an electric shock from this wire; but if the wire which surrounds an electro-magnet be used, a shock is felt each time the contact with the electromotor is broken, provided the ends of the wire be grasped one in each hand.