Page:Experimental researches in electricity.djvu/333

Rh sulphuret of potassium. White lead applied in the same manner was also found to acquire the same state. Either of these bodies when compared with platinum in dilute nitric acid was, on the contrary, very positive.

1035. The same effect is well shown by the action of oxidised iron. If a plate of iron be oxidised by heat so as to give an oxide of such aggregation and condition as to be acted on scarcely or not at all by the solution of sulphuret, then there is little or no current, such an oxide being as platinum in the solution (828). But if it be oxidised by exposure to air, or by being wetted and dried; or by being moistened by a little dilute nitric or sulphuric acid and then washed, first in solution of ammonia or potassa, and afterwards in distilled water and dried; or if it be moistened in solution of potassa, heated in the air, and then washed well in distilled water and dried; such iron associated with platinum and put into a solution of the sulphuret will produce a powerful current until all the oxide is reduced, the iron during the whole time being negative. 1036. A piece of rusty iron in the same solution is powerfully negative. So also is a platinum plate with a coat of protoxide, or peroxide, or native carbonate of iron on it (1033).

1037. This result is one of those effects which has to be guarded against in the experiments formerly described (814, 874). If what appears to be a clean plate of iron is put into a dilute solution of the sulphuret of potassium, it is first negative to platinum, then neutral, and at last generally feebly positive; if it be put into a strong solution, it is first negative, and then becomes neutral, continuing so. It cannot be cleansed so perfectly with sand-paper but that when immersed it will be negative, but the more recently and well the plate has been cleansed, the shorter time does this state continue. This effect is due to the instantaneous oxidation of the surface of the iron during its momentary exposure to the atmosphere, and the after reduction of this oxide by the solution. Nor can this be considered an unnatural result to those who consider the characters of iron. Pure iron in the form of a sponge takes fire spontaneously in the air; and a plate recently cleansed, if dipped into water, or breathed upon, or only exposed to the atmosphere, produces an instant smell of hydrogen. The thin film of oxide which can form during a momentary exposure is, therefore, quite enough to account for the electric current produced.

1038. As a further proof of the truth of these explanations,