Page:Experimental researches in electricity.djvu/150

124 possible, consistently with the collection, at the closed extremity of the tube, of all the gas evolved against it. The plane of this plate is also perpendicular (455). The other metallic termination,

b, is introduced at the time decomposition is to be effected, being brought as near the angle as possible, without causing any gas to pass from it towards the closed end of the instrument. The gas evolved against it is allowed to escape.

444. The third form of apparatus contains both electrodes in the same tube; the transmission, therefore, of the electricity and the consequent decomposition, is far more rapid than in the separate tubes. The resulting gas is the sum of the portions evolved at the two electrodes, and the instrument is better adapted than either of the former as a measurer of the quantity of voltaic electricity transmitted in ordinary cases. It consists of a straight tube (fig. 24) closed at the upper extremity, and graduated, through the sides of which pass platina wires (being fused into the glass), which are connected with two plates within. The tube

is fitted by grinding into one mouth of a double-necked bottle. If the latter be one-half or two-thirds full of the dilute sulphuric acid (441), it will, upon inclination of the whole, flow into the tube and fill it. When an electric current is passed through the instrument, the gases evolved against the plates collect in the upper portion of the tube, and are not subject to the recombining power of the platina.

445. Another form of the instrument is given at fig. 25.

446. A fifth form is delineated (fig. 26). This I have found exceedingly useful in experiments continued in succession for days together, and where large quantities of indicating gas were to be collected. It is fixed on a weighted foot, and has the form of a small retort containing the two electrodes: the neck is narrow, and sufficiently long to deliver gas issuing from it into a jar placed in a small pneumatic trough. The electrode chamber, sealed