VIII. On the gas voltaic battery. —Experiments made with a view of ascertaining the rationale of its action and its application to eudiometry

Abstract

In the Philosophical Magazine for December 1842, I have published an account of a voltaic battery in which the active ingredients were gases, and by which the decom­position of water was effected by means of its composition. The battery described in that paper consisted of a series of tubes containing strips of platinum foil covered with a pulverulent deposit of the same metal; the platinum passed through the upper parts of the tubes, which were closed with cement, the lower extremities were open; they were arranged in pairs in separate vessels of dilute sulphuric acid, and of each pair one tube was charged with oxygen, the other with hydrogen gas, in quantities such as would allow the platinum to touch the dilute acid; the platinum in the oxygen of one pair was metallically connected with the platinum in the hydrogen of the next, and a voltaic series of fifty pairs was thus formed. With this battery the following effects were produced:— 1st. A shock was given which could be felt by five persons joining hands. 2nd. The needle of a moderately sensitive galvanometer was whirled round and remained permanently deflected 60°. 3rd. A gold-leaf electroscope was notably affected. 4th. A brilliant spark visible in broad day-light was given between charcoal points. 5th. Iodide of potassium, hydrochloric acid, and water acidulated with sulphuric acid were severally decomposed; the gas from the decomposed water was collected and detonated. The gases were evolved in the direction which the chemical theory would indicate, the hydrogen travelling in one direction throughout the circuit, and the oxygen in the reverse.