W. L. Wharton, Esq. Communicated by James F. W. Johnston, Esq., M.A., F.R.S. L. & Ed.
The author, considering the generally received explanation of intermitting springs, founded on the operation of a simple syphon, as being insufficient to account for the phænomena, inasmuch as the water which has risen above the lower side of the bend of the syphon will merely trickle down its longer leg, and be expended before it can fill the whole area of that part of the syphon, has proposed the following hypothesis for the solution of the difficulty. He conceives that the stream, while falling obliquely down the long leg of the syphon, is broken into drops, and carries along with it numerous air-bubbles, which, if the lower end of the tube have an abrupt bend upwards, will be impelled forwards, and escape at the open part; thus occasioning a rarefaction of the remaining air in the tube sufficient to ensure its full operation as a syphon. A model is described, which the author constructed for the purpose of illus trating and corroborating his views.
January 25, 1838
FRANCIS BAILY, Esq., Vice-President and Treasurer, in the Chair.
Neil Arnott, M.D.; the Rev.William Cureton, M.A.; and Charles Lock Eastlake, Esq., were severally elected Fellows of the Society.
Fourth Letter on Voltaic Addressed to Michael Faraday, Esq., D.C.L. A paper was in part read, entitled, Combinations." F.R.S., by John Frederic Daniell, Esq., F.R.S.
February 1, 1838.
FRANCIS BAILY, Esq., Vice-President and Treasurer, in the Chair.
The reading of a paper, entitled "Fourth Letter on Voltaic Combinations, with reference to the mutual relations of the generating and conducting surfaces;" addressed to Michael Faraday, Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S., &e. By John Frederic Daniell, Esq., F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry in King's College, London, was resumed and concluded
In this communication the author describes a series of experiments, made for the purpose of determining the distribution of the voltaic force from its source in the generating metal, as indicated by the deposition of reduced copper in the constant battery; and, considering that the voltaic combination most perfect in theory would be one formed by a solid sphere, or point, of the generating metal, surrounded by a hollow sphere of the conducting metal, with an intervening liquid electrolyte, he constructed an apparatus making as near an approximation as possible to these conditions. It consisted of two hollow brass hemispheres, applied to éach other by exterior
