battery is moderately excited by diluted acid, and its poles, terminated by cups of mercury, are connected by a copper wire not more than a foot in length, no spark is perceived when the connexion is either formed or broken; but if a wire thirty or forty feet long be used instead of the short wire, though no spark will be perceptible when the connexion is made, yet when it is broken by drawing one end of the wire from its cup of mercury, a vivid spark is produced. If the action of the battery be very intense, a spark will be given by a short wire; in this case it is only necessary to wait a few minutes until the action partially subsides, or no more sparks are given; if the long wire be now substituted, a spark will again be obtained. The effect appears somewhat increased by coiling the wire into a helix; it seems also to depend in some measure on the length and thickness of the wire. I can account for these phænomena only by supposing the long wire to become charged with electricity, which, by its reaction on itself, projects a spark when the connexion is broken[1]."
The above was published immediately before my removal from Albany to Princeton; and new duties interrupted for a time the further prosecution of the subject. I have, however, been able during the past year to resume in part my investigations, and among others, have made a number of observations and experiments which develop some new circumstances in reference to this curious phænomenon.
These, though not as complete as I could wish, are now presented to the Society, with the belief that they will be interesting at this time on account of the recent publication of Mr. Faraday on the same subject.
The experiments are not given in the precise order in which they were first made, but in that which I deem best suited to render them easily understood; they have, however, been repeated for publication in almost the same order in which they are here given.
1. A galvanic battery, consisting of a single plate of zinc and copper, and exposing one and a half square feet of zinc surface, including both sides of the plate, was excited with diluted sulphuric acid, and then permitted to stand until the intensity of the action became nearly constant. The poles connected by a piece of copper bell-wire, of the ordinary size and five inches long, gave no spark when the contact was broken.
2. A long portion of wire, from the same piece with that used in the last experiment, was divided into equal lengths of fifteen feet, by making a loop at each division, which could be inserted into the cups of mercury on the poles of the battery. These loops being amalgamated, and dipped in succession into one of the cups while the first end of the wire
- ↑ Silliman's Journal, vol. xxii. page 408.
