Page:A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism - Volume 1.djvu/370

328 and a saturated solution of sulphate of zinc is poured over it. The zinc is in the form of a grating and is placed horizontally near the surface of the solution. A glass tube is placed vertically in the solution with its lower end just above the surface of the copper plate. Crystals of sulphate of copper are dropped down this tube, and, dissolving in the liquid, form a solution of greater density than that of sulphate of zinc alone, so that it cannot get to the zinc except by diffusion. To retard this process of diffusion, a siphon, consisting of a glass tube stuffed with cotton wick, is placed with one extremity midway between the zinc and copper, and the other in a vessel outside the cell, so that the liquid is very slowly drawn off near the middle of its depth. To supply its place, water, or a weak solution of sulphate of zinc, is added above when required. In this way the greater part of the sulphate of copper rising through the liquid by diffusion is drawn off by the siphon before it reaches the zinc, and the zinc is surrounded by liquid nearly free from sulphate of copper, and having a very slow downward motion in the cell, which still further retards the upward motion of the sulphate of copper. During the action of the battery copper is deposited on the copper plate, and SO4 travels slowly through the liquid to the zinc with which it combines, forming sulphate of zinc. Thus the liquid at the bottom becomes less dense by the deposition of the copper, and the liquid at the top becomes more dense by the addition of the zinc. To prevent this action from changing the order of density of the strata, and so producing instability and visible currents in the vessel, care must be taken to keep the tube well supplied with crystals of sulphate of copper, and to feed the cell above with a solution of sulphate of zinc sufficiently dilute to be lighter than any other stratum of the liquid in the cell.

Daniell's battery is by no means the most powerful in common use. The electromotive force of Grove's cell is 192,000,000, of Daniell's 107,900,000 and that of Bunsen's 188,000,000.

The resistance of Daniell's cell is in general greater than that of Grove's or Bunsen's of the same size.

These defects, however, are more than counterbalanced in all cases where exact measurements are required, by the fact that Daniell's cell exceeds every other known arrangement in constancy of electromotive force. It has also the advantage of continuing in working order for a long time, and of emitting no gas.