Page:Experimental researches in electricity.djvu/222

196 between the place of contact with the platina and the place where the zinc is active; these intervening particles being evidently in close dependence upon and relation to each other. The zinc forms a direct compound with those particles of oxygen which were, previously, in divided relation to both it and the hydrogen: the oxide is removed by the acid, and a fresh surface of zinc is presented to the water, to renew and repeat the action.

685. Practically, the state of tension is best relieved by dipping a metal which has less attraction for oxygen than the zinc, into the dilute acid, and making it also touch the zinc. The force of chemical affinity, which has been influenced or polarised in the particles of the water by the dominant attraction of the zinc for the oxygen, is then transferred, in a most extraordinary manner, through the two metals, so as to re-enter upon the circuit in the electrolytic conductor, which, unlike the metals in that respect, cannot convey or transfer it without suffering decomposition; or rather, probably, it is exactly balanced and neutralised by the force which at the same moment completes the combination of the zinc with the oxygen of the water. The forces, in fact, of the two particles which are acting towards each other, and which are therefore in opposite directions, are the origin of the two opposite forces, or directions of force, in the current. They are of necessity equivalent to each other. Being transferred forward in contrary directions, they produce what is called the voltaic current: and it seems to me impossible to resist the idea that it must be preceded by a state of tension in the fluid, and between the fluid and the zinc; the first consequence of the affinity of the zinc for the oxygen of the water.

686. I have sought carefully for indications of a state of tension in the electrolytic conductor; and conceiving that it might produce something like structure, either before or during its discharge, I endeavoured to make this evident by polarised light. A glass cell, seven inches long, one inch and a half wide, and six inches deep, had two sets of platina electrodes adapted to it, one set for the ends, and the other for the sides. Those for the sides were seven inches long by three inches high, and when in the cell were separated by a little frame of wood covered with calico; so that when made active by connection with a battery upon any solution in the cell, the bubbles of gas rising from them did not obscure the central parts of the liquid.