tain a platina wire 1104th of an inch in thickness, red hot, in contact with the air, for three minutes and three-quarters (588), a quantity which is almost infinitely greater than that which could be evolved by the little standard voltaic arrangement to which I have just referred (595, 107). I have endeavoured to make a comparison by the loss of weight of such a wire in a given time in such an acid, according to a principle and experiment to be almost immediately described (597); but the proportion is so high that I am almost afraid to mention it. It would appear that 800,000 such charges of the Leyden battery as I have referred to above, would be necessary to supply electricity sufficient to decompose a single grain of water; or, if I am right, to equal the quantity of electricity which is naturally associated with the elements of that grain of water, endowing them with their mutual chemical affinity.
597. In further proof of this high electric condition of the particles of matter, and the identity as to quantity of that belonging to them with that necessary for their separation, I will describe an experiment of great simplicity but extreme beauty, when viewed in relation to the evolution of an electric current and its decomposing powers.
598. A dilute sulphuric acid, made by adding about one part by measure of oil of vitriol to thirty parts of water, will act energetically upon a piece of zinc plate in its ordinary and simple state: but, as Mr. Sturgeon has shown,[1] not at all, or scarcely so, if the surface of the metal has in the first instance been amalgamated; yet the amalgamated zinc will act powerfully with platina as an electromotor, hydrogen being evolved on the surface of the latter metal, as the zinc is oxidised and dissolved. The amalgamation is best effected by sprinkling a few drops of mercury upon the surface of the zinc, the latter being moistened with the dilute acid, and rubbing with the fingers or tow so as to extend the liquid metal over the whole of the surface. Any mercury in excess, forming liquid drops upon the zinc, should be wiped off.[2]
599. Two plates of zinc thus amalgamated were dried and accurately weighed; one, which we will call A, weighed 163.1 grains; the other, to be called B, weighed 148.3 grains. They
- ↑ Recent Experimental Researches, etc., 1830, p. 74, etc.
- ↑ The experiment may be made with pure zinc, which, as chemists well know, is but slightly acted upon by dilute sulphuric acid in comparison with ordinary zinc, which during the action is subject to an infinity of voltaic actions. See De la Rive on this subject, Bibliothequè Universelle, 1830, p. 391.
