Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 4.djvu/177

Rh Observations made in the Indian Seas." By the Rev. W. Whewell, B.D., F.R.S., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.

This paper contains the results of the examination by the author of certain series of tide observations made at several places in the Indian Seas, which were forwarded to the Admiralty by the Hon. East India Company. These localities were Cochin, Corringa River, Surat roads in the Gulf of Cambay, Gogah, on the opposite side of the same gulf, and Bassadore, in the Island of Kissmis in the Persian Gulf.

dressed to Michael Faraday, Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S., Fullerian Pro- fessor of Chemistry in the Royal Institution of Great Britain, &c., &c. By John Frederic Daniell, Esq., F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry in King's College, London.
 * On the Electrolysis of Secondary Compounds." In a letter ad-

The discovery of definite electrochemical action naturally suggests the inquiry into the relative proportion of that part of a voltaic cur- rent, which, in the case of its decomposing a saline solution, is car- ried by the elements of the water, and that part which is carried by the elements of the saline compound, and into the definite relations, if any such there be, subsisting between the two electrolytes so de- composed. This question was the origin of the investigation which forms the subject of the present letter. The power which the author employed in this experimental inquiry was that of a small constant battery of thirty cells, six inches in height, with tubes of earthen- ware, charged in the manner he has described in his former commu- nications to the Society. The result of the first experiment evidently indicated that the decomposition of one equivalent of water was ac- companied by the decomposition of an exact equivalent of sulphate of soda. The author then endeavours to ascertain whether the power of the current is equally divided between what had hitherto been re- garded as the two equivalent electrolytes. The first experiments he made in order to determine this point seemed to lead to the ex- traordinary conclusion, that the same current which is just sufficient to separate an equivalent of oxygen from an equivalent of hydrogen in one vessel, will at the same time separate an equivalent of oxygen from one of hydrogen, and also an equivalent of sulphuric acid from one of soda in another vessel.

The author then examines the remarkable phenomena relative to the transfer of matter from one electrode to the other without the decomposition of the transported compound ; a phenomenon which was first observed by Mr. Porret in glass cells divided into two com- partments by a diaphragm of bladder.

Having observed that the products of electrolyzation cannot be kept long separate in their respective cells, on account of the ulti- mate mixture of the liquids on the platinode side of the diaphragm, the author was led to construct an apparatus by which this evil is remedied much more perfectly, and to which he gives the name of the double diaphragm cell. It consists of two cells, formed of two glass cylinders, with collars at their lower ends, fitted by grinding