Page:A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism - Volume 1.djvu/333

236.] Properties of the Current.

235.] The current forms a closed circuit in the direction from copper to zinc through the wires, and from zinc to copper through the solutions.

If the circuit be broken by cutting any of the wires which connect the copper of one cell with the zinc of the next in order, the current will be stopped, and the potential of the end of the wire in connexion with the copper will be found to exceed that of the end of the wire in connexion with the zinc by a constant quantity, namely, the total electromotive force of the circuit.

Electrolytic Action of the Current.

236.] As long as the circuit is broken no chemical action goes on in the cells, but as soon as the circuit is completed, zinc is dissolved from the zinc in each of the Daniell's cells, and copper is deposited on the copper.

The quantity of sulphate of zinc increases, and the quantity of sulphate of copper diminishes unless more is constantly supplied.

The quantity of zinc dissolved and also that of copper deposited is the same in each of the Daniell's cells throughout the circuit, whatever the size of the plates of the cell, and if any of the cells be of a different construction, the amount of chemical action in it bears a constant proportion to the action in the Daniell's cell. For instance, if one of the cells consists of two platinum plates dipped into sulphuric acid diluted with water, oxygen will be given off at the surface of the plate where the current enters the liquid, namely, the plate in metallic connexion with the copper of Daniell's cell, and hydrogen at the surface of the plate where the current leaves the liquid, namely, the plate connected with the zinc of Daniell's cell.

The volume of the hydrogen is exactly twice the volume of the oxygen given off in the same time, and the weight of the oxygen is exactly eight times the weight of the hydrogen.

In every cell of the circuit the weight of each substance dissolved, deposited, or decomposed is equal to a certain quantity called the electrochemical equivalent of that substance, multiplied by the strength of the current and by the time during which it has been flowing.

For the experiments which established this principle, see the seventh and eighth series of Faraday's Experimental Researches;