Page:Experimental researches in electricity.djvu/100

74 very evident that the transfer is greatly dependent upon the mutual action of the particles of the decomposing bodies.

267. In some of the experiments the acid from the vessels a and b was neutralised by ammonia, then evaporated to dryness, heated to redness, and the residue examined for sulphates. . In these cases more sulphate was always obtained from a than from b; showing that it had been impossible to exclude saline bases (derived from the asbestus, the glass, or perhaps impurities originally in the acid), and that they had helped in transferring the acid into b. But the quantity was small, and the acid was principally transferred by relation to the water present.

268. I endeavoured to arrange certain experiments by which saline solutions should be decomposed against surfaces of water; and at first worked with the electric machine upon a piece of bibulous paper, or asbestus moistened in the solution, and in contact at its two extremities with pointed pieces of paper moistened in pure water, which served to carry the electric current to and from the solution in the middle piece. But I found numerous interfering difficulties. Thus, the water and solutions in the pieces of paper could not be prevented from mingling at the point where they touched. Again, sufficient acid could be derived from the paper connected with the discharging train, or it may be even from the air itself, under the influence of electric action, to neutralise the alkali developed at the positive extremity of the decomposing solution, and so not merely prevent its appearance, but actually transfer it on to the metal termination: and, in fact, when the paper points were not allowed to touch there, and the machine was worked until alkali was evolved at the delivering or positive end of the turmeric paper, containing the sulphate of soda solution, it was merely necessary to place the opposite receiving point of the paper connected with the discharging train, which had been moistened by distilled water, upon the brown turmeric point and press them together, when the alkaline effect immediately disappeared.

269. The experiment with sulphate of magnesia already described (231) is a case in point, however, and shows most clearly that the sulphuric acid and magnesia contributed to each other's transfer and final evolution, exactly as the same acid and soda affected each other in the results just given (263, etc.); and that so soon as the magnesia advanced beyond the reach of