notably between 1805 and 1806, in company with Gay-Lussac during
a tour which they made together through France, Switzerland, Italy
and Germany, as related in the first volume of the _Mémoires de la
Société d’Arcueil_.
Some idea can be formed of the extent of Humboldt’s share in the
magnetical labours of the first half of the century by perusing the
last chapters of his “Cosmos” and the third volume of his “Relation
Historique.” At p. 615 of the last-named work, he himself says: “The
observations on the variation of terrestrial magnetism, to which I
have devoted myself for thirty-two years, by means of instruments
which admit of comparison with one another, in America, Europe and
Asia, embrace an area extending over 188 degrees of longitude from the
frontier of Chinese Dzoungarie to the West of the South Sea, bathing
the coasts of Mexico and Peru, and reaching from 60 degrees North
latitude to 12 degrees South latitude. I regard the discovery of the
law of the decrement of magnetic force from the pole to the equator as
the most important result of my American voyage.”
Humboldt was the first who made especial observations of
those irregular perturbations to which he applied the name of
“magnetic-storms,” and the effects of which he originally observed at
Berlin in 1806. These are treated of in his “Cosmos,” London, 1858,
Vol. V. pp. 135, etc., wherein he states that, when the ordinary
horary movement of the needle is interrupted by a magnetic-storm, the
perturbation manifests itself often simultaneously, in the strictest
sense of the word, over land and sea, covering hundreds and thousands
of miles, or propagates itself gradually, in short intervals of
time, in every direction over the earth’s surface. In this same work
(“Cosmos,” Sabine’s translation, Vol. I. p. 180), he contributes a
graphic description of the concurrent and successive phases of a
complete aurora borealis, reference to which is made by Noad (“Manual,”
etc., pp. 228, 229, 235), who, likewise, gives (pp. 612–615) an account
of the establishment of magnetic stations at different points, for
simultaneous observations, upon a plan originally laid out by Humboldt.
As early as 1806, this great naturalist had published at Erfurt
his “Inquiry Concerning Electrical Fishes.” While at Naples with
Gay-Lussac, during the previous year, they had examined the properties
of the _torpedo_, and had observed more particularly that the animal
must be irritated previous to the shock, preceding which latter a
convulsive movement of the pectoral fins is noticeable, and that
electrical action is prevented by the least injury done to the brain
of the fish; also, that a person accustomed to electrical discharges
could with difficulty support the shock of a vigorous torpedo only
fourteen inches long; that the discharge can be felt with a single
finger placed upon the electrical organs, and that an insulated person
will not receive the shock if the fish is touched with a key or other
conducting body (_Phil. Mag._, Vol. XXII. p. 356; _Annales de Chimie_,
No. 166; “Encycl. Brit.,” 1855, Vol. VIII. p. 573). Humboldt’s account
of the mode of capturing gymnoti is detailed at pp. 575, 576 of the
last-named work, as well as at pp. 472–474 of Noad’s “Manual of
Electricity,” London, 1859.
At request of the King of Prussia, Humboldt returned from Paris to his
native city in 1827, and it was during the winter of 1827–1828 that he
began in Berlin his lectures on “Cosmos, or Physical Universe.” This
is the title of his chief work, which has universally been recognized
one of the greatest productions ever published, and one which Ritter
pronounced as being the culminating point both in the history of
science and in the annals of civilization.
REFERENCES.--Klenke, “Alex. Von Humboldt, ein biographisches
Denkmal,” 1851: “Alex. Von Humboldt ... von Wittwer,” Leipzig,
1861; “Life of Alex. Von Humboldt,” translated by J. and C.
Lassell, 2 Vols., London, 1873; “Meyer’s Konversations-Lexikon,”
Leipzig und Wien, 1895, Vol. IX. pp. 44–47; Delambre’s
eulogium on Humboldt will be found at p. 15, Vol. XV of
“Edinburgh Review”; Gren’s “Neues Journal der Physik,” Vol.
IV; _Annales de Chimie_, Vol. XXII; _An. Chim. et Physique_,
Vol. XI; Poggendorff’s “Annalen,” Vols. XV, XXXVII; “Société
Philomathique,” Tome I. p. 92; “Opus. Scelti,” XXI. p. 126;
Knight’s “Mech. Dict.,” Vol. II. p. 1874; _Phil. Mag._, Vol. VI
(1800), pp. 246, 250; “Cat. of Sc. Papers of Roy. Soc.,” Vol.
III. pp. 462–467; Vol. VI. p. 692; Vol. VII. pp. 1035–1036;
_Sc. Am. Supp._, No. 457, pp. 7301, 7302; Noad, “Manual,” pp.
425, 528, 529, 612; Harris, “Rudim. Magn.,” Part III. p. 103;
Walker, “Ter. and Cos. Magn.,” 1866, p. 81; Humboldt, “Aphorismi
ex doctrina ...” 1793; “Voyage, etc., dans les années,
1799–1804”; “Report of Seventh Meeting of British Association,”
Vol. VI, London, 1838, pp. 1, 5 and 7, and the remainder of
Major Sabine’s able article upon “Magnetic Intensity,” in the
same volume; “Report of the Meeting of the French Academy of
Sciences” of May 21, 1849, for extract of a letter from Emile
H. Du Bois-Reymond, sent by Humboldt, and treating of the
Electricity of the Human Frame (“L’Institut,” Mai 23, 1849);
S. H. Christie and Sir G. B. Airy, “Report upon a Letter ...”
London, 1836; C. H. Pfaff, “Mém. sur les expér. de Humboldt ...”
1799; Houzeau et Lancaster, “Bibl. Gén.,” Vol. II. pp. 168,
1580–1581.
=A.D. 1800.=--William Nicholson, editor of the journal bearing his
name, as well as an able chemist, and Sir Anthony (then Mr.) Carlisle,
an English surgeon, while carrying on a series of chemical experiments,
discover that, by means of the voltaic pile, water is decomposed
into its constituents of oxygen and hydrogen. Their pile consisted
of seventeen silver half-crown pieces alternated with equal discs of
copper and cloth soaked in a weak solution of ordinary salt, and,
having used a little water to make good the contact of the conducting
wire with a plate to which the electricity was to be transmitted,
Carlisle observed that gas was being set free in the water, while
Nicholson recognized the odour of hydrogen proceeding from it. The
better to observe this result they afterward (May 2, 1800) employed a
small glass tube, which, after being filled with water, was stopped at
both ends with corks through which passed two brass wires extending
a little distance into the water. When platinum wires were used, gas
bubbles appeared from both wires, and the two gases, hydrogen from the
negative and oxygen from the positive end, were found to be nearly in
the proportion to constitute water. (See account of above in Pepper’s
“Electricity,” p. 312, as well as at pp. 193 and 194 of Fahie’s
“History of Telegraphy to 1837,” and at pp. 339 and 340 of Vol. I of
Lardner’s “Lectures.”)
During the year 1781 William Nicholson had published the first edition
of “An Introduction to Natural Philosophy.” In the second section of
the third book of the latter work he treats of magnetism, the methods
of communicating it, and the variation of the compass. The loadstone,
he says, “is a ponderous ore of iron, usually of a dirty black colour
and hard enough to emit sparks with steel. It is found in most parts
of the world, and possesses a natural magnetism acquired most probably
from its situation or position with respect to the earth.” In the
third section of the same third book he discourses upon electrical
matter, electrical jars, electrical instruments, and devotes much
space to the explanation of experiments and facts touching natural and
atmospheric electricity, balls of fire, of the _ignis fatuus_, or
_will-with-the-wisp_, of waterspouts, earthquakes, etc., alluding
to most of the then well-known observations thereon recorded by
different scientists.
To Nicholson is due the invention of a revolving doubler, an
improvement upon that of Abraham Bennet, which is described and
illustrated in the “Encyclopædia Britannica,” as well as in No. 647,
p. 10327, of the _Sci. Am. Supplement_ (Read at A.D. 1794, also _Phil.
Trans._, Vol. LXXVIII. p. 1, for M. Cavallo’s remarks upon the defects
in Bennet’s doubler).
The above-named discovery of Nicholson and Carlisle, which, Mr. Davy
says (_Phil. Trans._ for 1826, p. 386) was the true origin of all that
had been previously done in electro-chemical science, together with
Hisinger and Berzelius’ decomposition of salts, and the successful
decomposition of ammonia, nitric acid, etc., made by the distinguished
English chemical philosopher, Dr. William Henry (_Nicholson’s Journal_,
Vol. IV. pp. 30, 209, 223 and 245; “Encyclopædia Metropolitana,” Vol.
IV. pp. 221 and 611; Hutton’s abridgment of _Phil. Trans._, Vol. X. pp.
505, 599), as well as Davy’s decomposition of the earths and alkalies,
creates at the commencement of another century, as we have already
observed, an entirely new epoch in the history of chemistry.
REFERENCES.--Nicholson’s letter to the Royal Society, read June
5, 1788, entitled “A description of an instrument which, by
the turning of a winch, produces the two states of electricity
without friction or communication with the earth” (influence or
induction machine!); _Nicholson’s Journal_, 1800, Vol. IV. p.
179; Despretz, “Physique,” 1827, p. 432; _Mechanics’ Magazine_,
Nov. 9, 1839; biography in “English Cyclopedia,” Vol. II. p.
82; Tomlinson, “Cyclopedia of Arts,” etc., 1862, Vol. I. p.
566; “Memoir of Joseph Henry,” 1880, p. 78; Highton, “The
Electric Telegraph,” p. 28; Noad, “Manual,” p. 353; “Encycl.
Brit.,” 1855, Vol. XXI. p. 628; _Phil. Trans._, Vol. LXXIX.
p. 265; _Philosophical Magazine_, Vol. VII. p. 337, and XLV.
p. 396; C. H. Wilkinson, “Elements of Galvanism,” 1804, Vol.
II. pp. 21, 22, 46, 68, 375, etc.; “Bibl. Brit.,” Vol. XIX. p.
274; “Sciences et Arts,” Part I. p. 274, and Part II. p. 339,
for Volta’s answer to Nicholson. For various treatises on,
and methods of, effecting the decomposition of water, consult
Adam W. Von Hauch (_Mons’ Jour. de Chimie_, Vol. I. p. 109);
G. Carradori (_Journal de Physique_, An. XII. p. 20, “Nuova
Scel. d’Op.,” quarto, Vol. I. p. 29, Paris and Milan, 1804);
W. Wilson (_Phil. Mag._, Vol. XXII. p. 260); Cioni e Petrini
(Brugnatelli’s _An. di Chim._, Vol. II. p. 322, 1805); M. Van
Marum’s letter to Nauche (_Jour. du Galvan._, Eleventh Book,
p. 187; _Gilb. Ann._, XI. p. 220); J. C. I. A. Creve, as at
Ronalds’ “Catalogue,” p. 119; “Bibl. Britan.,” An. VIII. vol.
xv. p. 23 and An. IX. vol. xvi. p. 23; J. C. Cuthbertson (_Phil.
Mag._, Vol. XXIV. p. 170, 1806); Jos. Mollet’s Memoirs published
at Aix and Lyons, 1821, 1823, as well as in the Reports of the
Lyons Academy, 1823, 1825, and in the _Comptes Rendus_ for
1823; Mr. Leeson (_Sturgeon’s Annals_, Vol. IV. p. 238, 1839;
Robert Hare, _Trans. Am. Phil. Soc._, N.S., Vol. VI. p. 339; L.
Palmieri and P. Linari-Santi, “Telluro-Elettricismo,” 1844; M.
Merget’s theses, read before the Paris Academy, Aug. 30, 1849;
A. Connel, _Phil. Mag._, 4th Ser., for June 1854, p. 426); Dr.
Edward Ash, “On the action of Metals ... upon water,” in letter
to Humboldt, April 10, 1796.
=A.D. 1800.=--Grout (Jonathan, Jr.), of Belchertown, Mass., takes
out, October 24, the first telegraph patent in the United States. It
was for a contrivance which he operated between Martha’s Vineyard and
Boston, about ninety miles’ distance, from hilltop to hilltop, and
which was sighted by telescopes (“Telegraph in America,” J. D. Reid,
1887, p. 5; also “Growth of Industrial Art,” Washington, 1888, p. 55).
=A.D. 1800.=--Cruikshanks (William), of Woolwich, England, confirms
Nicholson and Carlisle’s experiments, and, in his further prosecution
of them, employs a pile consisting of from forty to a hundred pairs of
zinc and silver plates, as well as a tube holding silver terminals or
electrodes, in place of the platinum electrodes, which they were first
to make use of.
He discovers that hydrogen is always evolved from the silver or copper
end of the voltaic pile and oxygen from the other; that, under like
circumstances, metals can be “completely revived” from their solutions;
that pure oxygen is freed when a wire of non-oxidable metal, like
gold, is connected with the zinc plate, and that fluids that contain
no oxygen cannot transmit the voltaic current. These results were
verified by Lieut. Col. Henry Haldane, whose many observations upon the
series of metals best suited to the production of voltaic electricity
and their respective powers in connection therewith are related at pp.
242 and 313, Vol. IV of _Nicholson’s Journal_ for Sept. and Oct. 1800.
Cruikshanks was also the first to discover, in 1800, that when passing
the electric current through water tinged with lithmus, the wire
connected with the zinc end of the pile imparted a red tinge to the
fluid contiguous to it, and that by using water coloured with Brazil
wood, the wire connected with the silver end of the pile produced a
deeper shade of colour in the surrounding fluid, whence it appeared
that an acid was formed in the former case, and an alkali in the
latter. Fahie, who thus mentions the fact, justly remarks that upon
this discovery are dependent the electro-chemical telegraphs proposed
by Bakewell, Caselli, Bonelli, D’Arlincourt, Sawyer and others.
Cruikshanks is the inventor of the galvanic trough, an improvement
upon the voltaic pile, made by soldering together rectangular plates
of zinc and copper, and so arranging them horizontally, in a box of
baked wood coated with an insulating substance, as to allow of open
spaces which can be filled with a solution of salt and water or with
diluted acid, to take the place of the wet plates of cloth, paper or
pasteboard. Cruikshanks’ plan was adopted in the construction of the
powerful battery of 600 pairs, which Napoleon Bonaparte presented to
the Ecole Polytechnique and upon which Gay-Lussac and Thénard made
their important experiments during the year 1808. As Noad remarks, it
is a very convenient form when sulphate of copper is used, for Dr. Fyfe
has shown (_Phil. Mag._, Vol. XI. p. 145) that this exciting agent
increases the electro-chemical intensity of the electric current as
compared with that evolved by dilute sulphuric acid in the proportion
of 72 to 16.
Both the above and Volta’s form of battery were much improved upon by
Dr. William Babington (1756–1833), who united the pairs of zinc and
copper plates by soldering them at one point, and by attaching them
to a strip of wood in such a manner as to allow of the entire line
being immersed at will into an earthenware or wooden trough having
a corresponding number of cells or partitions. The extraordinarily
strong voltaic battery, constructed in 1808 for the Royal Institution
of London, by Mr. Eastwick under the direction of Sir Humphry Davy and
of John George Children, was built upon this plan. It consisted of 200
separate parts, each part being composed of ten double plates, in all
2000 double plates of zinc and copper with a total surface of 128,000
square inches, and the charge which William H. Pepys was accustomed
to give it consisted of a mixture of 1168 parts of water, 108 parts
nitrous acid, and 25 parts sulphuric acid.
REFERENCES.--Wilkinson, “Elements of Galvanism,” 1804, Vol. II.
pp. 52–63, 96–99; Pepper, “Electricity,” 1809, pp. 313–315;
Noad, “Manual,” pp. 263, 264; Tomlinson, “Cyclopædia of Arts,”
Vol. I. p. 566; Napier, “Electro-Metallurgy,” 1853, pp. 27,
28; _Nicholson’s Journal_, Vol. IV. pp. 187, 254, 261 and
511; _Sturgeon’s Annals_, Vol. IX. p. 309; Cruikshanks, “Some
Experiments and Observations on Galvanic Electricity,” July
1800; also “Additional Remarks on Galvanic Electricity,”
September 1800.
=A.D. 1801.=--Davy (Humphry), a very eminent English chemical
philosopher, whose early studies had been greatly influenced
both by Dr. John Tonkin, of Penzance, and by Gregory Watt, son
of the celebrated inventor, James Watt, as well as by Mr. Davies
Giddy Gilbert, who brought him to the notice of the English Royal
Institution, delivers before the latter body, on the 25th of April
1801, his first lecture, wherein he traces the history of galvanism,
and describes the different methods of “accumulating” it.
His first communication to the Royal Society was made in June
of the same year, and is entitled, “An Account of Some Galvanic
Combinations Formed by the Arrangement of Single Metallic Plates and
Fluids, Analogous to the New Galvanic Apparatus of Volta.” As his
able biographer, Prof. T. James Stewart Traill, M.D., of Edinburgh,
remarks, this paper is the first of that series of electro-chemical
investigations which have immortalized his name. In all hitherto
constructed piles, the series had consisted of not less than two
metals, or of one plate of metal, another of charcoal, and some
interposed fluid. He showed in this paper that the usual galvanic
phenomena might be energetically exhibited by a single metallic
plate and two strata of different fluids, or that a battery might
be constructed of one metal and two fluids, provided one of the
fluids was capable of causing oxidation on one of the surfaces of the
metal (“Bakerian Lectures,” London, 1840, pp. 32, etc., and _Phil.
Trans._, Vol. XCI. p. 297).
On the 20th of November 1806 was read before the Royal Society Davy’s
first Bakerian lecture, “On Some Chemical Agencies of Electricity.”
This essay was universally regarded as one of the most valuable
contributions thus far made to chemistry, and obtained for Davy the
prize founded by Napoleon when First Consul, to be awarded by the
French Institute, “à celui, qui par ses expériences et ses découvertes,
fera faire a l’électricité et au galvanisme un pas comparable à
celui qu’ont fait faire à ces sciences Franklin et Volta” (“Bakerian
Lectures,” 1840, p. 56, and notes at p. 349, Vol. I of Dr. Lardner’s
“Lectures,” etc., 1859).
Of the French Institute Davy became a member in 1817. Regarding the
above-named important paper, given in full at pp. 1–56, of the volume
of “Bakerian Lectures,” already referred to, Davy says (_Phil.
Trans._ for 1826, p. 389): “Referring to my experiments of 1800,
1801 and 1802, and to a number of new facts, which showed that
inflammable substances and oxygen, alkalies and acids, and oxidable and
noble metals, were in electrical relations of positive and negative,
I drew the conclusion _that the combinations and decompositions by
electricity were referable to the law of electrical attractions and
repulsions_,” and advanced the hypothesis “_that chemical and
electrical attractions were produced by the same cause, acting in the
one case on particles; in the other on masses; ... and that the same
property, under different modifications, was the cause of all the
phenomena exhibited by different voltaic combinations_” (Vol. I.
pp. 678–684 of Dr. Thomas Young’s “Course of Lectures,” London, 1807,
on “Electricity in Motion,” also Dr. Henry M. Noad’s “Manual,” London,
1859, pp. 362–365).
The second Bakerian lecture, “On some new phenomena of chemical changes
produced by electricity, particularly the decomposition of the fixed
alkalies, and the exhibition of the new substances which constitute
their bases; and on the general nature of alkaline bodies,” was read
Nov. 19, 1807. In this he gives an account of the most brilliant of
all his discoveries (made during the previous month), proving that the
so-called fixed alkalies are merely combinations of oxygen with metals.
It has been stated by Dr. John Ayrton Paris that since the days of
Newton no such happy and successful instance of philosophical induction
has ever been afforded as that by which Davy reached the above-named
results (_Phil. Trans._ for 1808, Vol. XCVIII. pp. 1–44). Davy’s
observations were fully confirmed by Gay-Lussac, Thénard, Berzelius
and Pontin (_Annales de Chimie_, Vol. LXXII. p. 193; Vol. LXXV.
pp. 256–291; _Bibl. Brit._ for June 1809, p. 122). Although Davy
was less successful in his attempt to decompose the proper earths, he
proved that they consist of bases united to oxygen. It was reserved
for Friedrich Wöhler, Berzelius and Bussy to exhibit the bases by
themselves, and to show that all, excepting silica, are metallic, and
capable of uniting with iron.
It is said that the original 500-plate batteries of the Royal
Institution were so worn in the course of Davy’s experiments as to
be almost unserviceable, and that he suggested to the managers the
propriety of starting a subscription for the purchase of a large
galvanic battery. This being acted upon during the month of July 1808,
he was placed in possession of the battery already alluded to in the
Cruikshanks article (A.D. 1800), and which was the most powerful
constructed up to that time. “With this battery Davy did not reach
any new results of importance; but he was enabled to demonstrate
the galvanic phenomena upon a more brilliant scale. Nor was the
increased power necessary to carry on successfully the experiments on
the decomposition of the alkalies and the earths as was apparently
believed by many of those historians of science ... who attributed the
author’s brilliant success in electro-chemical research to his supposed
extraordinary means, the enormous voltaic batteries of the Royal
Institution.” In this connection, the terse notes appearing at foot of
pp. 62, 63, 106, 107 of the 1840 edition of the “Bakerian Lectures”
will prove interesting reading.
It was with the afore-named galvanic combination that Davy openly
made--in 1809–1810, and not in 1813, as has been frequently stated--the
first display of the continuous electric arc (John Davy, “Memoirs of
the Life of Sir Humphry Davy,” p. 446).
“When the cells of this battery were filled with sixty parts of water
mixed with one part of nitric acid and one part of sulphuric acid,”
he says, “they afforded a series of brilliant and impressive effects.
When pieces of charcoal about an inch long and one-sixth of an inch in
diameter were brought near each other (within the thirtieth or fortieth
part of an inch), a bright spark was produced, and more than half the
volume of the charcoal became ignited to whiteness, and by withdrawing
the points from each other a constant discharge took place through the
heated air, in a space equal at least to four inches, producing a most
brilliant ascending arch of light, broad and conical in form in the
middle. When any substance was introduced into this arch, it instantly
became ignited; platina melted as readily in it as wax in the flame
of a common candle; quartz, the sapphire, magnesia, lime, all entered
into fusion; fragments of diamond, and points of charcoal and plumbago,
rapidly disappeared, and seemed to evaporate in it, even when the
connection was made in a receiver exhausted by the air pump; but there
was no evidence of their having previously undergone fusion” (“Elements
of Chemical Philosophy,” 1812, p. 154).
Dr. Paris says that Davy had already produced the spark upon a small
scale as far back as 1800 (_Nicholson’s Journal_, Vol. III, quarto,
p. 150), and we learn, through an article published upon the early
experiments with the electric light, the names of others who had
likewise noticed the arc at about the same period, while Quetelet
informs us that M. Curtet is reported to have observed the light
between carbon points during the year 1802 (Curtet’s letter to J. B.
Van Mons in the latter’s _Journal de Chimie_, No. VI. p. 272, and in
_Journal de Physique_, An. XI. p. 54). The article referred to is as
follows:
“Dr. S. P. Thompson has given the following interesting details in
regard to this subject: In looking over an old volume of the _Journal
de Paris_, I found, under date of the Twenty-second Ventose, An. X
(March 12, 1802), this passage, which evidently refers to an exhibition
of the electric arc: ‘Citizen (E. G.) Robertson, the inventor of
the phantasmagoria (magic lantern), is at present performing some
interesting experiments that must doubtless advance our knowledge
concerning galvanism. He has just mounted metallic piles to the number
of 2500 zinc plates and as many of rosette copper. We shall forthwith
speak of his results, as well as of a new experiment that he performed
yesterday with two glowing carbons. The first having been placed at
the base of a column of 120 zinc and silver elements, and the second
communicating with the apex of the pile, they gave at the moment they
were united a brilliant spark of an extreme whiteness that was seen by
the entire society. Citizen Robertson will repeat the experiment on the
25th.’”
The date generally given for this discovery by Humphry Davy is 1809,
but earlier accounts of his experiments are found in Cuthbertson’s
“Electricity” (1807), and in several other works.
In the _Phil. Mag._, Vol. IX. p. 219, under date of Feb. 1, 1801,
in a memoir by Dr. H. Moyes, of Edinburgh, relative to experiments
made with the pile, we find the following passage: “When the column
in question had reached the height of its power, its sparks were
seen by daylight, even when they were made to jump with a piece of
carbon held in the hand.” In the same volume of the _Phil. Mag._,
and immediately following Dr. Moyes’ letter to Dr. Garthshore, on
experiments with the voltaic pile, will be found an account of similar
investigations made in Germany, and communicated by Dr. Frulander, of
Berlin.
In the “Journal of the Royal Institution” (1802), Vol. I. p. 106, Davy
describes a few experiments made with the pile, and says: “When instead
of metals, pieces of well-calcined carbon were employed, the spark
was still larger and of a clear white.” On p. 214 he describes and
figures an apparatus for taking the galvano-electric spark into fluid
and aeriform substances. This apparatus consisted of a glass tube open
at the top, and having at the side another tube through which passed a
wire that terminated in a carbon. Another wire, likewise terminating in
carbon, traversed the bottom, and was cemented in a vertical position.
But all these observations are subsequent to a letter printed in
“Nicholson’s Journal” for October 1800, p. 150, entitled “Additional
experiments on Galvanic Electricity in a letter to Mr. Nicholson.” The
letter is dated Dowry Square, Hotwells, Sept. 22, 1800, and is signed
by Humphry Davy, who at this epoch was assistant to Dr. Beddoes at the
Philosophical (Pneumatic) Institution of Bristol. It begins thus:
“Sir: The first experimenters in animal electricity remarked the
property that well calcined carbon has of conducting ordinary galvanic
action. I have found that this substance possesses the same properties
as metallic bodies for the production of the spark when it is used for
establishing a communication between the extremities of Signor Volta’s
pile.”
Among the papers read by Davy before the Royal Society between June
30, 1808, and Feb. 13, 1814, are the following: “Electro-chemical
researches on the decomposition of the earths, with observations on the
metals obtained from the alkaline earths, and on the amalgam procured
from ammonia”; “An account of some new analytical researches on the
nature of certain bodies,” etc., and the Bakerian lecture “On some
new electro-chemical researches, on various objects, particularly the
metallic bodies from the alkalies and earths, and on some combinations
of hydrogen”; “Elements of chemical philosophy, detailing experiments
on electricity in vegetation.”
In alluding to the important subjects covered by him during the
above-named period, his brother and biographer, John Davy, M.D.,
F.R.S., says: “I shall not attempt an analysis of these papers; I
shall give merely a sketch of the most important facts and discoveries
which they contain, referring the chemical reader to the original for
full satisfaction. After the extraction of metallic bases from the
fixed alkalies, analogies of the strongest kind indicated that the
alkaline earths are similarly constituted; and he succeeded in proving
this in a satisfactory manner. But, owing to various circumstances of
peculiar properties, he was not able on his first attempts to obtain
the metals of those earths in a tolerably pure and insulated state
for the purpose of examination. On his return to the laboratory after
his illness, this was one of the first undertakings. He accomplished
it to a certain extent by uniting a process of Messrs. Berzelius and
Pontin, who were then engaged in the same enquiry, with one of his own.
By negatively electrifying the earths, slightly moistened, and mixed
with red oxide of mercury, in contact with a globule of mercury, he
obtained amalgams of their metallic bases; and, by distillation, with
peculiar precautions, he expelled the greater part of the mercury.
Even now, in consequence of the very minute quantities of the bases
which he procured, and their very powerful attraction for oxygen,
he was only able to ascertain a few of their properties in a hasty
manner. They were of silvery lustre, solid at ordinary temperatures,
fixed at a red heat, and heavier than water. At a high temperature
they abstracted oxygen from the glass, and, at ordinary temperatures,
from the atmosphere and water, the latter of which in consequence they
decomposed. The names he proposed for them, and by which they have
since been called, were barium, strontium, calcium and magnium, which
latter he afterwards altered to magnesium....”
The reviewer of Davy, in the columns of the “Chemical News,” writing in
1879, states that his papers on numerous subjects flowed into the Royal
Society’s archives in an uninterrupted stream, and it may be said,
without exaggeration, that his work, especially during the six years
from 1806 to 1812, did more for chemistry than the 60 which followed
them.
Between the last-named dates, Davy was asked by the Dublin Society
to give a course of lectures on electro-chemical science, which he
delivered Nov. 8–29, 1810. Trinity College afterward conferred on him
the degree of LL.D., and he was knighted by the Prince Regent one
day before resigning from the Royal Institution, wherein he gave his
farewell address on April 9, 1812.
In 1813, accompanied by his bride and Mr. Faraday (his “assistant
in experiments and in writing”), Davy made his first trip to the
Continent, where he met Ampère, Humboldt, Gay-Lussac, Vauquelin,
Cuvier, Laplace and other distinguished scientists, and where
he carried on many experiments, of which the results were duly
communicated to the Royal Society, as were also the observations made
by him up to the time of the completion of his second trip in 1820.
Besides the Rumford medal conferred on him in 1816, he received a
baronetcy two years later, and was given, in 1827, the medal of the
Royal Society, the presidential chair of which he occupied for seven
consecutive years.
One of the four memoirs produced by Davy in 1818–1829 treats of
electro-magnetism. In 1820, Davy, Arago and Seebeck independently
discovered the magnetizing power of the electric current on steel
and iron needles or filings. In Davy’s experiments, it is said,
the filings adhered to the wire connecting the poles of a voltaic
apparatus, consisting of a hundred pairs of plates of four inches, in
such considerable quantities as to form a mass around it ten or twelve
times the thickness of the wire (_Phil. Trans._ for 1821, p. 9;
_Annales de Chimie et de Physique_, Vol. XV. p. 93).
Davy was actively engaged during 1821–1822 in experiments on
electro-magnetism and on electricity in vacuo, reaching the conclusion,
in the last-named channel, that electric light as well as electrical
attractions and repulsions are observable in the most perfect vacuum
obtainable. This is readily demonstrated with either the apparatus
employed by Tyndall in his Lecture VIII, “On the analogies of light,
heat and sound,” or with the apparatus used by Davy and illustrated at
Plate CCXXIII of the “Encyclopædia Britannica,” eighth edition. From
the numerous experiments and observations recorded in the last-named
work the following are extracted:
“A spark capable of passing through only half an inch in common air
will pass through six inches of the Torricellian vacuum.... When the
minutest quantity of rare air was introduced into the mercurial vacuum,
the colour of the electric light changed from bright _green_ to _sea
green_, and by increasing the quantity, to _blue_ and _purple_. At a
low temperature the vacuum became a much better conductor. A vacuum
above fused tin exhibited nearly the same phenomena. At temperatures
below zero the light was yellow and of the palest phosphorescent kind,
just visible in great darkness, and not increased by heat. When the
vacuum was formed by pure olive oil and by chloride of antimony, the
electric light through the vapour of the chloride was more brilliant
than that through the vapour of the oil; and in the last it was more
brilliant than in the vapour of mercury at common temperatures. The
light was of a _pure white_ with the chloride, and of a _red_ inclining
to _purple_ in the oil.... In carbonic acid gas the light of the spark
is white and brilliant, and in hydrogen gas it is red and faint. When
the sparks are made to pass through balls of wood or ivory they are
of a _crimson_ colour. They are _yellow_ when taken over powdered
charcoal, _green_ over the surface of silvered leather, and _purple_
from imperfect conductors.”
Davy’s Bakerian lecture for 1826 was entitled “On the relation of
electrical and chemical changes.” Two years previous to its reading
he had communicated to the English Government his discovery of what
he erroneously considered a remedy against the rapid deterioration
of copper sheathing for ships. His plan consisted in altering the
electrical condition of the copper by adding plates of zinc or iron
(called “protectors”), but the bottoms of the vessels became so foul
through the deposition of calcareous matter and the adhesion of large
balani and lepades, etc., to the copper, that the attempt had to be
abandoned (A. Bobierre, “Thèse ... pour doubler les navires,” Nantes,
1858). It was in the same year (1824) that Davy made an important
journey through Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Holstein, and Hanover, during
which he met Oersted, Berzelius, Gauss, Olbers, Schumacher and other
savants.
His last communication to the Royal Society, “Remarks on the
Electricity of the _Torpedo_,” was sent from Rome in 1828, one year
before his death, and embodies the result of many observations made
while on the Continent, more especially during the years 1814–1815.
The investigations in this line which, owing to continued ill health,
he was unable to carry on, were completed by his brother, Dr. John
Davy, who established the following points of difference between the
phenomena of the _torpedo_ and those of other kinds of electricity:
“Compared with voltaic electricity, its effect on the multiplier is
feeble: its power of decomposing water and metallic solutions is
inconsiderable; but its power of giving a shock is great, and so also
is its power of magnetizing iron. Compared with common electricity,
it has a power of affecting the multiplier, which, under ordinary
circumstances, common electricity does not exhibit; its chemical
effects are more distinct; its power of magnetizing iron and giving
a shock appears very similar; its power of passing through air is
infinitely less as is also (if it possess it at all) the power of
producing heat and light.”
Davy likewise made noteworthy observations concerning the
pyro-electricity of the tourmaline, confirming previous investigations
in the same line, and asserting that “when the stone is of considerable
size, flashes of light may be seen along its surface” (“Elements
of Chemical Philosophy,” Vol. I. p. 130), a curious fact which Sir
David Brewster says he does not believe has ever been verified by any
subsequent observer.
It is not within the scope of this “Bibliographical History” to
describe Davy’s other notable papers relative to the miner’s safety
lamp, etc., but reference should be made here to his first scientific
memoir, “On heat, light and the combination of light” (Sir H. Davy’s
works, Vol. II) of which copious extracts are given by Prof. John
Tyndall in the appendix to his third lecture on “Heat considered as a
mode of motion.”
As regards the caloric theory, which had deservedly been engaging
the attention of so many scientists, it is, however, thought best
to quote here from Deschanel’s article on thermo-dynamics: “Strange
to say, this theory survived the many exposures of its weakness and
the, if possible, still more conclusive experiment of Sir Humphry
Davy, who showed that two pieces of ice, when rubbed together, were
converted into water, a change which involves not the evolution but the
absorption of latent heat, and which cannot be explained by diminution
of thermal capacity, since the specific heat of water is much greater
than that of ice. Davy, like Rumford, maintained that heat consisted
in motion, and the same view was maintained by Dr. Thomas Young;
but the doctrine of caloric nevertheless continued to be generally
adopted until about the year 1840, since which time the experiments of
Joule, the eloquent advocacy of Meyer, and the mathematical deductions
of Thomson, Rankine and Clausius, have completely established the
mechanical theory of heat, and built up an accurate science of
thermo-dynamics.”
REFERENCES.--“The Life of Sir H. Davy,” by John Ayrton Paris,
M.D., 1831, and by T. E. Thorpe, New York, 1896, also his life
by Dr. John Davy, F.R.S., 1836; and his biography and articles
“Chemistry” and “Voltaic Electricity” in the “Encyclopædia
Britannica”; “Works of Sir Humphry Davy,” edited by John Davy,
1839–1840; “The Fragmentary Remains ... of Sir H. Davy,” 1858;
“Dic. Tech. et Prat. d’Electricité” de Mr. Geo. Durant, Paris,
1887–1889; W. T. Brande, “Manual of Chemistry,” London, 1848,
Vol. I. pp. xciii-cv, 213–224; C. H. Wilkinson, “Elements of
Galvanism,” London, 1804, Vol. II. pp. 80–86, and Chap. XXVII;
Thomas Thomson, “History of the Royal Society,” London, 1812,
pp. 454–455; “Galvanism,” in Dr. Lardner’s Lectures; Noad’s
“Lectures on Chemistry,” pp. 32–33; Bakewell’s “Elec. Sc.,” pp.
33–35; Daniel Davis, “Manual of Magnetism,” 1846–1852; Thomson,
“History of Chemistry,” Vol. II. pp. 260–261; “Elem. of Exp.
Chem.,” Wm. Henry, London, 1823, Vol. I. p. 192; “Elements of
Chemical Philosophy,” p. 155; Thomas Thomson, M.D., London,
1830; “Outline of the Sciences of Heat and Electricity,”
pp. 467, et. seq., 491–495, 533; De la Rive’s “Treatise
on Electricity ...” Vol. II. pp. 282–283; “Encyclopedia
Metropolitana,” Vol. IV (Galv.), pp. 176, 178, 222, and (Elec.
Mag.) pp. 9 and 10; Gay-Lussac and Thénard, _Phil. Mag._, Vol.
XXXII. p. 88, 1809; Jacquin, _Phil. Mag._, Vol. XXXVI. p. 73,
1810; M. Donovan, _Phil. Mag._, Vol. XXII. pp. 227, 245, 1811;
M. Yatman, “A Letter ...” and Davy’s “Enquiries ...” London,
1811, 1814; W. Henry, “On Sir H. Davy and Dr. Wollaston,”
London, 1830; Contessi G. Lelandri, “Ann. Reg. Lomb., Veneto,”
11, 78, 1832, and F. I. Roux, “Conservation des plaques ...”
Paris, 1866; _Nicholson’s Journal_, 4to, Vol. IV. pp. 275, 337
and 394; and 8vo., Vol. I. p. 144, Vol. III. p. 135; Dredge,
“Electric Illumination,” Vol. I. pp. 24, 25, 30; _Phil. Mag._,
Vol. VII. p. 347, for experiments of Dr. Henry Moyes, also Vol.
XI. pp. 302, 326; XXVIII. pp. 3, 104, 220; XXIX. p. 372; XXXI.
p. 3; XXXII. pp. 1, 18–22, 101, 146, 193; XXXIII. p. 479; XXXV.
p. 401; XXXVI. pp. 17, 85, 352, 404; XL. p. 145; LVIII. pp. 43,
406; LIX. p. 468; LX. p. 179; _Phil. Mag. or Annals_, Vols. I.
pp. 31, 94, 190; VI. p. 81; X. pp. 214, 379, 426; _Phil. Trans._
for 1801, 1809, 1810, 1822; Sturgeon’s “Scientific Researches,”
Bury, 1850, pp. 14–16, 23; _Annales de Chimie_, Vol. XV. p.
113; “Société Philomathique,” An. X. p. 111; Becquerel, Paris,
1850, Vol. I. pp. xi and 33 note; “Nuova Scelta d’Opusc.” Vol.
II. pp. 190, 282; “Beiträge zur Erweiterung,” etc., Berlin,
1820; “Elemente d. Chemischen,” etc., Berlin, 1814; “Royal
Society Catalogue of Scientific Papers,” London, 1868, Vol.
II. pp. 171–175; “Biographie Générale,” Vol. XIII. p. 264;
“Engineering,” London, Vol. LII. p. 759; “Abstracts of Papers
... Roy. Soc.,” London, 1832–1833, Vol. I. pp. 59, 247, 278,
313, 350; Vol. II. pp. 154, 159, 189, 213, 242, 281, 354; “Royal
Society Catalogue of Scientific Papers,” Vol. II. pp. 175–180,
and Vol. VI. p. 633 (likewise Vol. VII. pp. 494–495--for John
Davy); “Bibliothèque Britannique,” Vol. XVII for 1801, pp. 237,
246; Vol. XXV, N.S. for 1824, p. 98; Vol. XXXIV, O.S. for 1807,
p. 397 (the same as “Nicholson’s Journal,” for January 1807);
Vol. XXXV. pp. 16, 141; “Edin. Phil. Journ.,” Vol. X. p. 185.
Of the afore-named references in the _Phil. Magazine_, Vol. XXXI,
that at p. 3 relates to Davy’s new Eudiometer acting by the electric
spark exactly in the same manner as that of Il Marchese de Brezé,
described in the “Opuscoli.”
=A.D. 1801.=--Flinders (Matthew), a very able navigator and captain
in the English merchant service, sails in the bark “Investigator” for
the purpose of circumnavigating and exploring New Holland. During
this memorable voyage he carefully observed the cause of errors in
the variation of the magnetic needle as depending on the direction in
azimuth of the ship’s head, having often noticed, as a writer in the
English _Quarterly Review_ expresses it (Vol. CXVIII. p. 343), that the
direction of the compass needle frequently wandered from that which the
known variation due to the geographical position of the ship assigned
to it. To correct those disturbances he suggested placing aft of the
compass a vertical bar of soft iron, whose upper end, having like
magnetism as the imaginary mass in the ship’s head, would, in acting on
the opposite pole of the compass needle, rectify its disturbances.
Flinders had, during the year 1795, made observations in the same line
as those recorded by the astronomer Bayly, who had sailed with Captain
Cook during his last two voyages, but it was not until his return from
the unfortunate first voyage above alluded to that he properly recorded
his investigations for the benefit of navigators.
REFERENCES.--“Encyclopædia Britannica,” 1856, Vol. X. p. 295,
and article “Australia,” Vol. IV. pp. 253, 254; “English
Cyclopædia” (Biography), Vol. II. pp. 933–935; _Sci. Am. Supp._,
No. 534, p. 8526; William Walker, “The Magnetism of Ships,”
London, 1833, pp. 21–23; “Abstracts of Papers of the _Phil.
Trans._, 1800–1830,” p. 187; _Phil. Trans._ for 1805; John
Farrar, “Elem. of Elect.,” 1826, p. 381; “Cat. Sc. Papers Royal
Soc.,” Vol. I. p. 187.
=A.D. 1801.=--Gautherot (Nicholas), able French chemist (1753–1803),
discovers that when a current has passed through two plates or wires
of the same metal in dilute sulphuric acid, a secondary, reverse or
polarization current is obtainable after disconnecting the battery.
This was the first step in the storage of electricity and an account is
given of it in the _Philosophical Magazine_, Vol. XXIV. pp. 185–186,
which contains a report of the proceedings before the Galvani Society
of Paris. Gautherot says that the results he obtained should become the
source or basis of several other experiments, and concur more than any
other to the discovery of the theory of this new branch of physics.
In this same year Gautherot observed the power of adhesion of the
two wires in contact with the upper and lower ends of the pile, a
report upon which appears at p. 209, Vol. XXXIX of the _Annales de
Chimie_, while a full account of his observations on the subject
forms the substance of a separate work printed in London during the
year 1828.
The French physicist, C. J. Lehot, makes allusion to the last-named
discovery in the following words, at p. 4 of his pamphlet entitled
“Observations sur le Galvanisme et le Magnétisme”:
“It has long been known that the two wires which terminate a pile
attract one another, and, after contact, adhere like two magnets.
This attraction between the two wires, one of which receives, and the
other loses, the galvanic fluid, differs essentially from electrical
attraction, as Ritter observed, since it is not followed by a repulsion
after contact, but continues as long as the chain is closed.”
J. J. Fahie, who also quotes this passage, says:
“The discovery in question seems to have been made independently,
and at about the same time by Gautherot (_Philosophical Magazine_ or
_Annals_ for 1828, Vol. IV. p. 458), by P. S. Laplace, and by J. B.
Biot (_Journal de Physique et de Chimie_, for 1801, Vol. LIII. p. 266).
The latter made the further very acute observation that, if the wires
are attached to plates of metal, and these plates approached by their
edges, they will attract one another; while if approached by their
faces no action whatever takes place. For other interesting experiments
of this kind see ‘Nicholson’s Journal’ for 1804, Vol. VII. p. 304.”
Previous to the aforesaid discoveries, on the 12th Brumaire, An. IX
(Nov. 1800), Gautherot had published his refutation of Volta’s contact
theory, through the Paris “Société Philotechnique,” and it is to be
found recorded at p. 471, Vol. I of the “Mémoires des Sociétés Savantes
et Littéraires de la République Française.”
Later on he devoted so much attention to galvanic researches that
Messrs. A. F. de Fourcroy and L. N. Vauquelin made a special report
upon the five important memoirs containing the results of his many
observations to the French Institute on the 21st Fructidor.
The first memoir gives the whole theory and practice of the various
kinds of conductors, and describes an apparatus devised by Gautherot to
ascertain the conducting powers of different natural, solid, liquid and
even gaseous bodies (Izarn, “Manuel du Galvanisme” 1804, pp. 56–60). He
enters into full details as to the effects of the voltaic pile in many
experiments made upon himself, and draws consequences which apparently
disprove the identity of the electric and the galvanic fluids.
The second memoir treats of the galvanic properties of charcoal, and
shows that it is a less perfect conductor than are metallic substances.
In the third memoir he makes known his discovery that charcoal and zinc
form a galvanic apparatus which will produce shocks, the decomposition
of water, etc. He observes “that in the decomposition of water,
charcoal decomposes that fluid in the same way with non-oxydable
metals; or, in other words, that when two pieces of charcoal are
employed for this purpose, one of them disengages the hydrogen gas, and
the other the oxygen ... when the portions of charcoal touch each other
in the water, its decomposition is not stopped on that account, as
happens when metallic substances are brought in contact under the same
circumstances. Indeed, if to bring more immediately together, one of
the pieces of charcoal be cut in a furcated shape, this does not become
an obstacle to the decomposition of the water.”
The fourth memoir treats further of different kinds of conductors, and
of various methods of constructing galvanic columns.
In the fifth and last memoir, Gautherot relates his important discovery
that an effective galvanic apparatus can be made without metals.
He constructed one of forty layers of charcoal and plumbago, which
communicated a strong and pungent taste, accompanied by the galvanic
flash of light, and which finally produced the decomposition of water,
the charcoal side disengaging the hydrogen gas (Izarn, “Manuel du
Galvanisme,” 1804, p. 177).
During the month of March 1803, he read before the “Institut National”
a memoir entitled “Recherches,” etc. (researches upon the causes which
develop electricity in the galvanic apparatus). This appeared in the
_Journal de Physique_, Vol. LVI. p. 429.
REFERENCES.--“Biographie Générale,” Vol. XIX. p. 694; Larousse,
“Dict. Univ.,” Vol. VIII. p. 1089; Izarn, Giuseppe (Joseph)
“Manuel du Galvanisme,” Paris, An. XII. 1804, s. 6, pp. 95,
250–254: _Mém. des Soc. Savantes_, etc., Vol. I. pp. 164,
168; P. Sue, aîné, “Hist. du Galvanisme,” Paris, An. X, 1802,
Vol. II. pp. 191, 196–203, 213, 214, 316; Alglave et Boulard,
_Lumière Electrique_, Paris, 1882, p. 219; _Poggendorff_,
Vol. I. p. 857; “Extrait d’une lettre de Brugnatelli,” etc.,
Bruxelles, 1802 (Van Mons, _Journal de Chimie_, Vol. II. p. 216).
=A.D. 1801.=--Robertson (Etienne Gaspard), a very capable French
experimentalist and one of the founders of the Paris Galvani Society,
who has already been alluded to in the article relating to Sir
Humphry Davy, writes a memoir, “Expériences nouvelles sur le fluide
galvanique,” which was read before the Institute on the 11th Fructidor,
An. VIII, and which appeared in the _Annales de Chimie_ (Vol. XXXVII.
p. 132), as well as in the “Mémoires Récréatifs, Scientifiques,” etc.,
published in Paris during 1840, three years after Robertson’s death.
Robertson states that as he was delivering a lecture on the 9th
Vendémaire, An. IX, during which he alluded to differences which
he found to exist between the galvanic and electric fluids, he was
interrupted by Prof. Brugnatelli, who stated that Volta, who was then
present, desired an opportunity to correct the wrong impressions
the lecturer laboured under. Volta called upon him early the day
following and brought a live frog as well as apparatus, with which
they experimented quite extensively, and the results of which brought
Robertson completely over to the views of the Italian scientist.
Volta frequently repeated his visits, which led to the development
of a lasting friendship between the two. They visited together
all the prominent scientific bodies, such as l’Ecole de Médecine,
l’Ecole Polytechnique, etc., but found to their great astonishment
that Robertson was the only one in Paris who had as yet given the
new discovery any serious attention. At pp. 250–253, Vol. I of his
“Mémoires,” etc., will be found a full account of the above as well as
of the very indifferent reception first given them by the celebrated
Prof. Charles.
Robertson adds (p. 256 of last-named work) that he was asked by Volta
to witness the latter’s notable experiments made before the members of
the National Institute of France, Nov. 16, 18, 20, 1800, and already
alluded to herein at A.D. 1775. The sessions of that body were being
held at the time in the Palais du Louvre, and the excitement caused
by the meetings was so great that all the approaches were guarded by
soldiery. After Prof. Volta had explained his theory and alluded to the
identity of electricity and galvanism, he announced that Robertson had
first illustrated the fact, and he asked him to repeat his original
experiment, which the latter did after the necessary hydrogen gas had
been procured from the neighbouring cabinet of Prof. Charles.
Robertson is also the author of several other interesting memoirs
on the electrophorus, the improved “couronne de tasses” and “acide
galvanique” which can be found in Vol. XXXVII of the _Journal de
Physique_ and in the _Journal de Paris_ for the year 1800 (“Recueil des
Actes de la Soc. de Lyon,” Tome II. p. 370).
=A.D. 1801.=--Gerboin (A. C.), Professor at the Medical School of
Strasbourg, is the first to report upon the peculiar agitation of
mercury when the voltaic current passes through it.
He states, in his “Recherches expérimentales sur un nouveau mode de
l’action électrique” (Strasbourg, 1808), that his many researches
were instigated by the observation he had made during the winter of
1798, while in company with some friends watching a child play with a
hollow wooden ball. The Italian physicist, Abbate Fortis (1740–1803),
who wrote several works on natural philosophy, but who is best known
by his “Viaggio di Dalmazia,” had already announced that a pyritical
cube suspended by a thread held between the thumb and index would
immediately, without any movement of the fingers, assume a circular
motion upon being approached by another body. The “Morgenblatt” of
Tübingen and the French “Archives Littéraires” render in 1807 a very
complete account of Ritter’s researches upon the Fortis pendulum,
and N. Meissas states, at pp. 181–187 of his “Nouveaux Eléments de
Physique,” Paris, 1838, that he repeated the experiment of Ritter and
of his friend Gerboin and observed many very curious results. These he
embodied in a communication during the month of April 1829 to Ampère,
who looked into Meissas’ work in company with M. Becquerel, also a
member of the French Institute.
In his experiments, Gerboin employed a tube bent in U[ symbol] form,
filled half full of mercury, which later was covered with a stratum
of water, and he placed therein the wires connecting with a pile. The
surface of the mercury beneath the negative pole was slightly oxidized,
but the surface under the positive point moved so violently as to
cause small bodies placed within to be thrown outward upon the surface
of the tube. These bodies moved in a contrary direction, v from the
circumference toward the interior, if the positive pole was made to
touch the liquid metal.
REFERENCES.--Observations of M. Erman, of the Berlin Academy of
Sciences, upon M. Gerboin’s experiments related in the _Annales
de Chimie_, Tome LXXVII. p. 32. Also, _Annales de Chimie_, Tome
XLI. pp. 196, 197, _Mém. des Soc. Sav. et Lit._, Vol. II. p.
199; Dr. Gore, “El. Metal,” 1877, p. 3; De la Rive, “Treatise on
Electricity,” 1856, Vol. II. p. 433; Gmelin’s “Chemistry,” Vol.
I. p. 487.
=A.D. 1801.=--Trommsdorff (Johann Bartholomäus), German chemist
and pharmacist, who became Professor of Physics and Chemistry in the
University of Erfurt, discovers that by employing large plates in
galvanic batteries he can produce the combustion of fine wires and of
thin leaves of metal.
After having obtained very strong shocks and large sparks, and effected
the decomposition of water, etc., with his first pile consisting of
180 discs of copper, zinc and wet cardboard, he experimented with
very thin leaves of the following metals, and found them to burn as
follows: Gold, with a bright white light; silver, with a blue light;
yellow copper, with a reddish blue light; red copper, with an emerald
blue flame; zinc, with a bluish white flame; tin, with a reddish white
light, etc. When oxidizing the noble or perfect metals, gold, silver,
platinum, in hollow glass spheres, he found them to melt so thoroughly
as to completely line the sides of the latter.
Trommsdorff afterward constructed a much larger pile of nearly 600
discs, not doubting that with a larger apparatus he could consume very
thick plates. It was while carrying on subsequent experiments that MM.
Fourcroy, Vauquelin and Thénard ascertained the fact that metals were
more effectively deflagrated by piles with large plates than by piles
having a great many plates of smaller surfaces.
In a letter dated Erfurt, March 16, 1801, Trommsdorff alludes to the
galvanic decomposition of water spoken of at p. 98 of the “Archives
du Nord pour la Physique et la Médecine,” published at Copenhagen,
and expresses doubts as to the correctness of the conclusions therein
pointed out by Pfaff and Ritter.
REFERENCES.--“Encycl. Metrop.” (Galvanism), Vol. IV. p. 221;
“Roy. Soc. Sci. Papers,” Vol. VI. pp. 45–52; _Poggendorff_, Vol.
II. pp. 1136, 1137; C. H. Wilkinson, “Elem. of Galv.,” London,
1804, Vol. II. pp. 134–136; J. S. Ersch, “Handbuch,” etc., p.
119; L. F. F. Crell, “Chemische Annalen” for 1801; 4^e Cah.,
p. 337; J. B. Van Mons, _Journal de Chimie_, Vol. I. p. 41;
Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. XV. p. 535. His pile is described
at pp. 253–254, Vol. II of “Hist. du Galvanisme,” P. Sue, aîné,
Paris, An. X, 1802, with references to Von Crell’s “Chemische
Annalen,” 1801, 4th Book, p. 237, and Van Mons’ “Journal de
Chimie,” Vol. I. p. 41.
=A.D. 1801.=--Libes (Antoine), Professor of Natural Philosophy
at the Collège de Beziers and at the Paris Ecole Normale and Lycée
Charlemagne, publishes in three volumes, at Paris, his “Traité
élémentaire de Physique,” which had been preceded by his “Théorie de
l’électricité,” etc., and was followed by a valuable “Dictionnaire de
Physique” in 1806 (C. F. V. Delaunay, “Manuel,” etc., Paris, 1809).
In his “Traité,” Prof. Libes dispels the previous generally accepted
belief as to the production of electricity by pressure. Experiments
made by Æpinus and by Haüy had shown that such minerals as developed
positive electricity by friction likewise exhibited the same
electricity by pressure, and that those furnishing resinous or negative
electricity by pressure developed the same electricity by friction.
It is known that varnished silk (_taffetas gommé_) acquires
resinous electricity by ordinary friction, but Libes found the means of
causing it to develop vitreous or positive electricity. This is shown
when a metallic disc insulated by a glass handle is _pressed_ upon
the silk; the latter will acquire positive electricity while the disc
will develop resinous or negative electricity. If, on the contrary, the
disc is _rubbed_ or _rolled_ upon the silk so as to produce
friction, the silk acquires resinous electricity and the disc vitreous
or positive electricity. If a glass plate is substituted for the disc,
the silk again acquires vitreous electricity and the glass resinous
electricity, that is to say, they both develop contrary electricities
to that furnished through ordinary rubbing.
REFERENCES.--Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. X. p. 475;
_Poggendorff_, Vol. I. pp. 1449, 1450; Volpicelli, “Sul
cognito fenomeno ...” Roma, 1859; Haüy, “Traité Elémentaire de
Physique,” Paris, 1806, Vol. I. pp. 371, 372; A. C. Becquerel,
“Expériences ... par la pression,” Paris, 1823; “Catal. of Sci.
Papers of Roy. Soc.,” Vol. IV. p. 5; Thos. Thomson, “An Outline
of the Sciences of Heat and Electricity,” London and Edinburgh,
1830, p. 482; Dove, p. 229; “Encycl. Brit.,” Vol. VIII, 1855, p.
563; _Annales de Chimie et de Physique_, Vol. XXII. p. 5; _Phil.
Mag._, Vol. LXII. pp. 204, 263.
=A.D. 1801.=--Fourcroy (Antoine François de), an eminent French
chemist, physician and author, who succeeded Macquer in the
professorship at the Jardin du Roi, for which Lavoisier was likewise a
candidate, publishes (Vol. XXXIX. p. 103, of the _Annales de Chimie_)
the result of galvanic experiments which he made in conjunction with
Louis Nicholas Vauquelin (1763–1829), and also with Baron Louis Jacques
Thénard (1777–1857), who, in turn, became the successor of Fourcroy as
Professor of Chemistry at the Ecole Polytechnique. They thought that by
using many discs they could increase the force of the current and also
decompose water more rapidly, but found this was not the case, and that
with an enlarged pile the combustion of metallic wires was more rapid
and brilliant, thus proving that the degree of combustion is relative
to the surface of the plates (“Encyclopædia Britannica,” 1855, Vol.
XXI. p. 626).
The grand experiment made conjointly by Fourcroy, Vauquelin and Seguin
on the composition of water from its constituent gases was commenced
May 13, 1790, and continued by them without intermission until its
completion, nine days later. “The gases were fixed in a close vessel
by means of electricity, and produced a nearly equal weight of water”
(_Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc._, N. S., Vol. VI. p. 339, giving
description of apparatus for the decomposition and recomposition of
water).
Fourcroy was also one of the savants appointed in 1798 by the Academy
of Sciences of Paris to examine and report upon the experiments of
Galvani. The committee was composed of Guyton de Morveau, Coulomb,
Vauquelin, Sabathier, Pelletan, Charles, Fourcroy and Hallé, the last
named being charged with the verification of all the then recent
discoveries, which were repeated with the assistance of Humboldt, who
went to Paris especially for the purpose. The official report fully
endorsed the praiseworthy line of researches prosecuted by both Galvani
and Humboldt, and the entire series of experiments was at once repeated
by many leading physicists throughout Germany.
On June 19, 1803, one of Antoine Fourcroy’s most interesting memoirs,
treating of meteoric stones, was read by C. Fourcroy before the French
Institute.
REFERENCES.--_Phil. Mag._, Vol. XVI. p. 299; Noad’s “Lectures,”
pp. 183, 184; Ure, “Dict. of Chem.”; also the interesting
biography embracing a list of his very numerous works and
treatises, at pp. 846–849, Vol. IX of 1855 “Encyclopædia
Britannica.” See likewise, “Royal Society Catalogue of
Scientific Papers,” Vol. II. pp. 677–682; Thomas Thomson,
“History of Royal Society,” p. 454; Wilkinson’s “Elements of
Galvanism ...” 1804, Vol. II. pp. 113, 145, 151, 152, 208, 359;
Fahie’s “History of Electric Telegraphy,” p. 194; Izarn, “Manuel
du Galv.,” 1804, s. 4, p. 167; “Journal des Savants” for Jan.
1860; P. Sue, aîné, “Hist. du Galvanisme,” Paris, 1802, Vol. II.
pp. 159–160, 241, 264. For Louis N. Vauquelin, consult “Cat. Sc.
Papers of Roy. Soc.,” Vol. VI. pp. 114–128, 761; also “Mém. des
Soc. Savantes et Litt.,” Vol. I. p. 204.
=A.D. 1801.=--Lehot (C. J.), French physicist, sends a curious and
lengthy memoir, regarding the circulation of a very subtile fluid in
the galvanic chain, to the Institut National, before which body it is
read on the 26 Frimaire, An. IX.
To the analyzation of the above-named memoir, Wilkinson devotes more
than half the tenth chapter of his “Elements of Galvanism,” calling
attention to a very singular result from numerous experiments which
is worthy of special mention. It is the possibility of actually
distinguishing one metal from another without seeing or feeling either
of them, and he says that by his arrangement of the chain, M. Lehot
was able to recognize a portion of zinc from a piece of silver, at the
extremity of metallic threads several yards in length.
Lehot’s contributions to the science of animal electricity are too
numerous to be given here. Noad summarizes them in the translation from
pp. 17, 18 of C. Matteucci’s “Traité des phénomènes ...” Paris, 1844.
He ascertained that in a recently killed animal contractions are
excited by the electric current in whatever direction it may be
applied, but, when the vitality of the animal has become diminished,
if the current is sent in the direction of the ramifications of the
nerves, contractions are produced only at the _commencement_ of
the current; the reverse takes place when the current is directed
contrary to the ramifications of the nerves; _i. e._ in this
case the contractions only take place when the current ceases. After
studying the sensation excited by the current on the organs of taste,
Lehot concluded that the current which traverses a nerve in the
direction of its ramifications excites a sensation when it ceases to
pass, though this influence is only exerted at the _commencement_
of its passage when the nerve is traversed in a direction contrary to
its ramifications. The later experiments of Carlo Francesco Bellingeri
and Stefano Giovanni Marianini entirely confirm those of Lehot.
REFERENCES.--_Annales de Chimie_, Vol. XXXVIII. p. 42; _Journal
de Physique_, An. IX, Pluviose, LII. 135; Gilbert, _Annalen_,
IX. 188; P. Sue, aîné, “Hist. du Galvanisme,” Vol. II. pp. 123,
124, 129, 132, 141,142; “Encyclopedia Metropolitana,” Vol. IV
(“Electro-Magnetism,” p. 8).
=A.D. 1801.=--Wollaston (William Hyde), celebrated English chemist
and natural philosopher, an associate of Sir Humphry Davy, who had
taken the degree of M.D., and joined the Royal Society in 1793, but
soon abandoned the practice of medicine to devote himself exclusively
to scientific researches, is the first to demonstrate the identity of
galvanism and frictional electricity, through a paper read before the
above-named society in June 1801.
The latter communication shows that he succeeded in decomposing water
as rapidly by means of mere sparks from frictional electricity as
through the agency of the voltaic pile, and in a more tranquil and
progressive manner than can be assured through shocks from large and
powerful apparatus. He concluded that the decomposition must depend
upon duly proportioning the strength of the charge to the quantity of
water, and that the quantity exposed to its action at the surface of
communication depends on the extent of that surface. He observes:
“Having procured a small wire of fine gold, and given to it as fine a
point as I could, I inserted it into a capillary glass tube, and after
having heated the tube so as to make it adhere to the point and cover
it at every part, I gradually ground it down till, with a pocket lens,
I could discern that the point of gold was disclosed. I coated several
wires in this manner, and found that when sparks from a conductor were
made to pass through water by means of a point so guarded, a spark
passing to the distance of ⅛ of an inch would decompose water, when
the point did not exceed ¹⁄₇₀₀ of an inch in diameter. With another
point, which I estimated at ¹⁄₁₅₀₀, a succession of sparks ¹⁄₂₀ of an
inch in length afforded a current of small bubbles of air. With a still
finer filament of gold, the mere current of electricity, without any
perceptible sparks, evolved gas from water.”
In his Bakerian lecture of Nov. 20, 1806, Sir Humphry Davy relates
experiments made after the manner contrived by Wollaston, showing
that the principle of action is the same in common as in voltaic
electricity. Dr. Robert Hare, in a paper read before the Academy of
Natural Sciences, “On the Objections to the Theories Severally of
Franklin, Dufay and Ampère,” etc., says that, instead of proving the
identity of galvanism with frictional electricity, the above-named
experiments show that in one characteristic at least there is a
discordancy, but that at the same time they possibly “indicate that
ethereal may give rise to ethereo-ponderable undulations.” Noad remarks
that in these ingenious experiments true electro-chemical decomposition
was not effected; that is, “the law which regulates the transference
and the final place of the evolved bodies had no influence.” The water
was decomposed at both poles independently of each other, and the
oxygen and hydrogen gases evolved at the wires are the elements of the
water before existing in those places. Faraday observes:
“That the poles, or rather points, have no mutual decomposing
dependence, may be shown by substituting a wire or the finger for one
of them, a change which does not at all interfere with the other,
though it stops all action at the charged pole. This fact may be
observed by turning the machine for some time; for though bubbles will
rise from the point left unaltered in quantity sufficient to cover
entirely the wire used for the other communication, if they could be
applied to it, yet not a single bubble will appear on that wire.”
Wollaston communicated a paper to the Royal Society (_Phil.
Trans._, Vol. XCI. p. 427) showing that the oxidation of the
metal is the primary cause of the electrical phenomena obtained in
the voltaic pile. The oxidating power is finely shown by his eighth
experiment, which he thus describes:
“Having coloured a card with a strong infusion of litmus, I passed a
current of electric sparks along it, by means of two fine gold points,
touching it at the distance of an inch from each other. The effect, as
in other cases, depending on the smallness of the quantity of water,
was most discernible when the card was nearly dry. In this state a very
few turns of the machine were sufficient to occasion a redness at the
positive wire, very manifest to the naked eye. The negative wire, being
afterward placed on the same spot, soon restored it to its original
blue colour.”
He verified in 1802 the laws of double refraction in Iceland spar
announced by Huyghens, and wrote a treatise thereon which was read
before the Royal Society on the 24th of June, and which contains
additional evidence deduced from Dr. Wollaston’s superior mode of
investigation.
He is said to have been the first to propose forming the spectrum by
using a very narrow pencil of daylight instead of sunlight, and to
have first made an accurate examination of the electric light. In his
communication to the Philosophical Transactions for 1802 he says:
“When the object viewed is a _blue_ line of electric light, I
have found the spectrum to be separated into several images; but the
phenomena are somewhat different from the preceding (viz. the spectrum
of the blue portion of the flame of a candle). It is, however, needless
to describe minutely appearances which vary according to the brilliancy
of the light, and which I cannot undertake to explain.”
During the year 1815, Wollaston made a great improvement in the
construction of voltaic batteries. Having observed that the power
of a battery is much increased with a corresponding economy in zinc
plates, when both zinc surfaces are opposed to a surface of copper, he
devised what he called an _elementary galvanic battery_. Each couple
of the latter is made up only of a plate of copper doubled up around a
zinc plate from which it is kept apart by strips of cork or wood, and
the connecting strips of metal are attached to a wooden rod which is
lowered or elevated when the battery is in or out of action. He found
that a properly mounted plate of zinc, one inch square, was more than
sufficient to ignite a wire of platina ¹⁄₃₀₀₀ of an inch in diameter,
even when the acid is very diluted (fifty parts of water to one of
sulphuric acid).
He was a very careful workman, and in order to adapt his apparatus
to the popular uses, he generally endeavoured to construct them upon
the most reduced scale (_dans des proportions très exigues_). He
produced platinum wire so extremely fine as to be almost imperceptible
to the naked eye. It was estimated that 30,000 pieces of this wire,
placed side by side in contact, would not cover more than an inch; that
it would take 150 pieces of this wire bound together to form a thread
as thick as a filament of raw silk, and that a mile of this wire would
not weigh more than a grain. It may be well to add here that the wire
made with John Wennstrom’s sapphire plates, for delicate electrical
apparatus, is so fine that thirty-six miles of it, properly insulated
for Government use in torpedo experiments, measures only about five
inches in length by three in diameter when wound upon a spool. The
fibre used as carbon filaments in the incandescent lamps is scraped to
an even thinness by being drawn through sapphire plates from ³⁰⁄₁₀₀₀ to
⁴⁄₁₀₀₀ of an inch in diameter.
The smallest battery that Wollaston formed of the above-described
construction consisted of a thimble without its top, flattened until
its opposite sides were about two-tenths of an inch asunder. The bottom
part was then nearly one inch wide and the top about three-tenths, and
as its length did not exceed nine-tenths of an inch, the plate of zinc
to be inserted was less than three-fourths of an inch square (_Annals
of Philosophy_, Vol. VI. p. 210).
We are also indebted to Dr. Wollaston for the first idea of the
possibility of producing electro-magnetic rotations. Prof. Schweigger
opposed the action of revolving magnetism upon the ground that if it
were true, a magnet might be made to revolve around the uniting wire,
but Faraday found experimentally not only that a magnet could be made
to revolve round the uniting wire, but that a movable uniting wire
might be made to revolve around a magnet. (See Faraday’s “Experimental
Researches,” Vol, II. pp. 159–162 for “Historical Statement Respecting
Electro-magnetic Rotation.”)
Wollaston was made secretary of the Royal Society in 1806, became its
president in 1820 after the death of Sir Joseph Banks, and contributed
in all thirty-eight memoirs to the _Philosophical Transactions_ of
that Institution.
His death occurred Dec. 22, 1828, and during the following February
Dr. Fitton, President of the Geological Society, concluded his annual
address with the following encomium:
“It would be difficult to name a man who so well combined the qualities
of an English gentleman and a philosopher, or whose life better
deserves the eulogium given by the first of our orators to one of our
most distinguished public characters; for it was marked by a constant
wish and endeavour to be useful to mankind.”
REFERENCES.--_Phil. Mag. or Annals_, Vol. V. p. 444. See also
“The Roll Call of the Royal College of Physicians of London,”
by William Munk, M.D., Vol. II; _Edin. Phil. Jour._, Vol. X. p.
183; Gmelin’s “Chemistry,” Vol. I. p. 424; De la Rive, “Treatise
on Electricity,” pp. 444, 445; _Phil. Mag._, Vol. XXXIII. p.
488; LXIII. p. 15; James Napier, “Manual of Electro-Metallurgy,”
4th Am. ed., pp. 492, 518; Desbordeaux, in _Comptes Rendus_,
Vol. XIX. p. 273; _Le Moniteur_, No. 40 for 1806; Sue, aîné,
“Galvanisme,” Vol. II. pp. 193–195, 199, 202; Joseph Izarn,
“Manuel du Galvanisme,” p. 137; _Poggendorff_, Vol. II. p. 1362;
“Encycl. Metrop.,” Vol. IV (Galvanism), pp. 180, 181, 216, 222;
_Nicholson’s Journal_, Vol. V. p. 333; Thos. Young, “Lectures,”
London, 1807, Vol. II. p. 679; W. Sturgeon, “Scientific
Researches,” Bury, 1850, p. 29; _Quarterly Journal of Science_
for January 1821; _British Quarterly Review_ for August 1846;
“Biog. Générale,” Tome XLVI. p. 822; Highton’s “Electric
Telegraph,” p. 14; Larousse, “Dict. Universel,” Tome XV. p.
1370; “Cat. Sc. Papers ... Roy. Soc.,” Vol. I. p. 61; Vol. II.
pp. 136, 199; “Bibl. Britan.,” 1801, Vol. XVIII. p. 274; 1810,
Vol. XLIII. p. 347 (_Phil. Mag._, June 1809); Vol. I., N.S.,
1816, p. 119.
=A.D. 1802.=--Walker (Adam), English writer and inventor of several
very ingenious mathematical instruments, publishes in London his
enlarged edition of “A System of Familiar Philosophy,” two volumes,
8vo, in which he devotes ss. 5–9 of Lecture II. vol. i. to magnetism,
and all of Lectures VII and VIII of the second volume to electricity.
We are informed, through his preface, that “the identity of fire,
light, heat, caloric, phlogiston and electricity, or rather their being
but modifications of one and the same principle, as well as their being
the grand agents in the order of nature ... are the leading problems of
the work.” In another part he tells us:
“If electricity, light and fire be but modifications of one and the
same principle ... and they have their origin or foundation in the
sun, it is natural to suppose, in issuing from that luminary, they
proceed from him first in their purest state, or in the character of
electricity; that joining the particles of our atmosphere, electricity
becomes _light_, and uniting with the grosser earth, _fire_ ... that
this _fire_ shall be culinary when called forth from the earth by
ordinary _combustion_, and electric when called forth by _friction_.
Thus have I exhibited this wonderful agent in most of the lights in
which it has yet been seen; and flatter myself the reader’s deductions
from these appearances will be similar to my own, viz. that electricity
emanates in a perfect state from the sun and fixed stars; that
its particles repel each other and fill all space; that they have
an affinity to the earth and planets, but an affinity that cannot
easily be gratified, because the surrounding atmospheres are in part
non-conductors, being already saturated, and, of course, repellent of
the electric fluid” (Lecture VIII. p. 72).
In the section devoted to “Miscellaneous Observations,” he remarks that
the magnetic power may almost be said to be created by friction, rather
than communicated by it; for a magnet acquires strength by giving
magnetism to iron; so that, if all the magnets in the world were lost,
magnetism might be revived by rubbing the end of one steel bar against
the side of another.
Section V, treating of “Magnetic Attraction,” concludes as follows:
“How far these observations and experiments go to establish the
doctrine of a magnetic effluvium flowing through the earth, or from one
end of a magnet to the other, must be left to the reader’s judgment and
opinion. We are apt to laugh at the _subtil matter_ of Descartes and
the _aether_ of Euler, as occult qualities, which modern philosophy
will not admit into its creed, but this effluvium is a _subtil_ matter,
an _aether_, equally as inexplicable and as equally out of the reach of
our five senses to scrutinize; however, if we may venture to guess at
causes by effects, and to compare analogies with what we can see, feel,
etc., I think we have infinite data in favour of an electro-magnetic
fluid, superior to any proof that can be brought of æther being the
cause of gravity, light, vision, etc.”
John Read’s letter to the author concerning the _electrophorus_ appears
at pp. 47–49 of the second volume (Poggendorff, Vol. II. pp. 1248–1249).
=A.D. 1802.=--Alexandre (Jean), who is said to have been the natural
son of Jean Jacques Rousseau, and to have studied for the medical
profession, operates his secret telegraph (_télégraphe intime_) at
Poitiers, and afterwards addresses M. Chaptal, Ministre de l’Intérieur,
asking for financial aid in order that he may be enabled to go to
Paris and submit his invention to the French Government. This request
being refused on account of Alexandre’s unwillingness to divulge his
secret, he next obtained an audience of M. Cochon, Prefect of Vienne,
before whom he demonstrated his invention so successfully that the
latter was induced to make a report of it to M. Chaptal, advising him
to invite Alexandre to Paris at the expense of the State. A second
refusal, however, followed, and Alexandre went to Tours, where he there
also failed to obtain the desired assistance, after giving successful
exhibitions of his telegraph before the Prefect of Indre-et-Loire,
General Rommereul, as well as before the Mayor and the city officials.
The substance of Prefect Cochon’s communication is to be found
translated at pp. 111–113 of Fahie’s “History of Electric Telegraphy,”
which latter also contains a full translation of the report addressed,
10 Fructidor, An. X by the celebrated French astronomer, J. B.
J. Delambre, to the First Consul, suggesting for the inventor’s
representative, M. Beauvais, an interview which Bonaparte, however,
refused to grant.
Alexandre died, 1832–1833, without having revealed his secret to
any one but M. Beauvais. It is stated by Fahie that in the English
_Chronicle_ of June 19–22, 1802, appears a brief account of the
above-named exhibition given at Tours, concluding as follows: “The art
or mechanism by which this is effected is unknown, but the inventor
says that he can extend it to the distance of four or five leagues,
even though a river should be interposed.” A copy of the above-named
newspaper, doubtless unique, was in Latimer Clark’s library.
REFERENCES.--“Annales Télégraphiques,” March-April, 1859, pp.
188–199, for M. Edouard Gerspach’s Memoir; “Sci. Am. Suppl.,”
No. 384, for a translation of M. Auguste Guéroult’s article in
“La Lumière Electrique”; M. Cézanne, “Le Cable Transatlantique,”
Paris, 1867, p. 32; M. Bério, “Ephemerides of the Lecture
Society,” Genoa, 1872, p. 645.
=A.D. 1802.=--Sue (Pierre, aîné), a very able French physician,
publishes, at Paris, “Histoire du Galvanisme et analyse des différents
ouvrages publiés sur cette découverte ...” which is considered by
scientists one of the most important works on the subject.
REFERENCES.--“Biographie Générale,” Vol. XLIV. pp. 618–619;
Larousse, “Dictionnaire Universel,” Vol. XIV. p. 1200;
Wilkinson, “Elem. of Galv.,” 1804, Vol. I. p. 182.
=A.D. 1802.=--Brugnatelli (Luigi Valentino), who, after being a pupil,
became the close friend and subsequently the colleague of Volta at the
Pavia University, is the first to obtain, by means of the voltaic pile,
a decidedly practical result in electro-plating. He gilded two large
silver medals on bringing them in communication, by means of the steel
wire, with the negative pole of a voltaic pile, and by keeping them
one after the other immersed in ammoniurets of gold newly prepared and
well saturated (_Phil. Mag._ for 1805).
He also electro-deposited bright metallic silver upon platinum, and
observed that when the current entered the liquid by means of a pole
of copper or zinc, those metals were dissolved and then deposited upon
the negative pole. Spon tells us (“Dictionary of Engineering,” London,
1874, Vol. II. p. 1378) that the solutions employed by Brugnatelli were
alkaline; they consisted of ammoniurets of gold, silver or platina,
that is, the product obtained by treating the chlorides of gold and
platina or the azotate of silver, by ammonia. There is much obscurity
in the descriptions of Brugnatelli, but according to the _Journal
de Physique et Chimie_ of Van Mons, the most expeditious method of
reducing, by means of the battery, dissolved metallic oxides, is to
make use of their ammoniurets by placing the ends of two conducting
wires of platina into ammoniuret of mercury. The wire of the negative
pole speedily becomes covered with small particles of this metal. MM.
Barral, Chevalier and Henri tried to reproduce Brugnatelli’s operation
by following his descriptions, but with very imperfect results, the
nature of the dissolvent employed by the learned Italian not being
known.
At p. 136, Vol. XVIII of his _Annali di Chimica_, etc., Brugnatelli
publishes a memoir entitled “Chemical Observations on the Electric
Acid.” He says:
“Naturalists have hitherto merely abandoned one erroneous hypothesis
for another, in considering the nature of the electric fluid. Some
have regarded it as identical with heat; while others have been led to
consider it as a modified caloric. The disciples of Stahl ascribed it
to the nature of their _phlogistic_ or, at least, supposed it to
be a fluid abundantly provided with that principle. Henley conjectured
it to be phlogistic, when in a state of repose, and fire, when in a
state of activity. Among the moderns, several have been found who
have declared it to be an acid; but their opinion has been combated
by Gardini, who, by means of several ingenious observations, has
endeavoured to demonstrate that it is composed of caloric and hydrogen.”
In the earlier experiments on the decomposition of even chemically
pure water by the voltaic column, the presence of an acid was always
apparent at the pole evolving oxygen, while alkaline matter appeared at
the other (_Nicholson’s Journal_, quarto, Vol. IV. p. 183).
Mr. William Cruikshanks supposed the former to be the nitrous acid
resulting from a combination of the oxygen at the positive pole with
the azote of the air held in solution by the water, while the alkali,
he said, proceeded from the combination of the same principle with the
hydrogen evolved at the negative pole (_Nicholson’s Journal_, quarto,
Vol. IV. p. 261). Mr. C. B. Desormes afterward endeavoured to show that
the products were ammonia and muriatic acids (_Annales de Chimie_,
Vol. XXXVII. p. 233). Brugnatelli’s experiments with the _couronne de
tasses_, however, led him to consider it to be an acid _sui generis_
produced by the combination of one of the constituents of water with
positive electricity. He classed it as _oxi-electric_, and of all the
metals, gold and platina alone appeared to him not to be sensibly
affected by this electric acid.
REFERENCES.--For Brugnatelli’s record of other experiments
and observations and for his Memoirs upon different piles,
upon animal electricity, upon the identity of the electric and
galvanic fluids, etc. etc., see his “Principes,” etc., 1803,
and “Grundsätze des Elektricität,” etc., 1812, his _Annali
di Chimica_, Vols. VII. p. 239; XIX. pp. 77, 153, 274, 277,
280–281; XXI. pp. 3, 143, etc., 239; XXII. pp. 1, etc., 77–92,
257, 301; the _Giornale di Chimica, Fis. e Storia Nat._ of
L. and G. Brugnatelli, G. Brunacci and P. Configliachi, Vol.
I. pp. 147–163, 337–353; IX. p. 145; XI. p. 130, and the
“Commentarii Medici,” edited by L. Brugnatelli and L. V. Brera;
also Brugnatelli’s _Giornale Fisico-Medico_, etc., and its
continuation, _Avanzamenti della Medicina e Fisica_, the first
named containing (Vol. I. p. 280), a repetition of Galvani’s
experiments, made by Volta, Rezia and Brugnatelli; G. Bianconi,
“Intorno ...” and “Cenni intorno ... Galvanoplastica” (_Nuovi
Annali della Scienze Naturali_); the “Biblioteca Italiana,” of
which his son Gaspare Brugnatelli was an editor, in conjunction
with Breislak, Configliachi, Carlini, Cotena, Acerbi, Brunacci,
Fantonelli, Fumagelli, Ferrario, Giordiani, Gironi and Monti; G.
A. Giobert, “Gior. Fis. Med.,” 1188; Du Pré, “Ann. di Chimica,”
IX. 156; P. Mascagni, “Lettera ...” for Brugnatelli’s notes; A.
Cossa, “Notizie ... elettro-chimica,” 1858; J. Napier, “Man. of
El. Met.,” 4th ed., pp. 491, 492; J. B. Van Mons’ _Journal de
Chimie_, Vols. I. pp. 1, 24, 101, 216, 325; II. pp. 106, 216;
IV. p. 143; X. p. 114; XVI. p. 132; also Vol. LXXVI; _Giornale
di Fis. Chim._, Vol. I. pp. 4–32, 28, 139–147, 164–166, 338;
“Effemeridi Chim. Mediche di Milano,” 1807, Sem. I. p. 57; A.
F. Gehlen’s _Journal für die Chemie_, Vol. I. pp. 54–88; VI.
pp. 116–124; VIII. pp. 319–359; L. W. Gilbert, _Annalen der
Physik_, Vols. VIII. pp. 284–299; XVI. pp. 89–94; XXIII. pp.
177–219; _Philosophical Magazine_, Vols. XXI. p. 187; XXV.
pp. 57–66, 130–142; LIII. p. 321; Dr. Thos. Thomson’s _Annals
of Philosophy_, Vol. XII. p. 228; Alfred Smee’s “Elements of
Electro-Metallurgy,” _History_, pp. xxv-xxvi; _Journal de
Pharmacie_, Vol. III. pp. 425, 426; J. Nauche, _Journal du
Galvanisme_, etc., Vol. II. pp. 55–60; P. Sue, aîné, “Histoire
du Galvanisme,” An. X, 1802, Vol. I. p. 305; II. pp. 263, 316,
320, 328; _Annales de Chimie_, Feb. 1818; for Brugnatelli,
“Biblioth. Britan.,” Vol. XXXI., 1806, pp. 43, 122, 223 (pile
végétale).
=A.D. 1802.=--Jäger (Karl Christoph Friedrich van), a well-known
physicist of Wurtemberg and professor at Stuttgart, confirms by
mathematical analysis the theory of electrical distribution and
equilibrium, as will be seen by his papers in Gilbert’s _Annalen der
Physik_, Vols. XII. pp. 123, 127; XIII. pp. 399–433; XXIII. pp.
59–84, and LII. pp. 81–108.
The views of Jäger were fully endorsed by Berzelius, who, like Scholz
and Reinhold, endeavoured to extend them, and who says that we are
indebted to the German physicist for actually the most complete
elucidation of the theory of the voltaic pile.
In Vol. XLIX of Gilbert’s _Annalen_ for 1815, pp. 47–66, will be
found Jäger’s observations and experiments on Zamboni’s column as well
as the papers of Zamboni and Deluc on dry piles. Dr. Thomson says that
since Dr. Jäger found that, when the temperature was raised to 104
degrees, or as high as 140 degrees, the pile begins again to act as
well as ever, we must conclude from this that dry paper, while cold, is
a nonconductor of electricity, but that it becomes again a conductor
when heated up to 104 degrees or 140 degrees.
REFERENCES.--Poggendorff, Vol. I. pp. 1186, 1187; “Catalogue of
Scientific Papers of the Royal Society,” Vol. III. p. 525; Jäger
on the tourmaline in Gilbert’s _Annalen_ for 1817, Vol. LV. pp.
369, 416, and Jäger, Bohnenberger and Zamboni in the _Annalen_
for 1819, Vol. LXII. pp. 227–246; Figuier, “Expos. et Histoire,”
1857, Vol. IV. p. 433; Davy, “Bakerian Lectures,” 1840, pp.
44–56, on the “Agencies of Electricity.”
=A.D. 1802.=--Gale (T.), an American physician, publishes at Troy
“Electricity or Ethereal Fire ... considered naturally, astronomically
and medically, and comprehending both the theory and practice of
medical electricity,” etc. Among other things, he describes at pp. 27,
28, various experiments made with his galvanometer; explains at pp.
46–64 how the Newtonian principles are erroneous; and shows at p. 264
how to extract lightning from the clouds; while at pp. 272, etc., are
given directions for using electricity both as a sure preventive and
cure of diseases.
=A.D. 1802.=--Gibbes (George Smith), M.D., of Bath, reads before
the Royal Society a paper on the Phenomena of Galvanism thus noticed
by Dr. Young at pp. 672, 673, Vol. II. of his “Course of Lectures,”
London, 1707:
“Dr. Gibbes begins with reciting some experiments on the oxidation
produced during the union of tinfoil with mercury, first in the air
and then under water. He assumes a different opinion from that of
Dr. Wollaston, respecting the origination of electricity in chemical
changes, and maintains on the contrary that the electrical changes are
to be considered as preceding and favouring the chemical. He imagines
that the simple contact of various substances produces changes of
electrical equilibrium, and that the action of acids is effectual in
promoting these changes, by bringing their surfaces into contact. Dr.
Gibbes observes upon Dr. Wollaston’s experiment of immersing zinc and
silver in an acid solution, that if they are placed in two separate
portions of the fluid, and the parts not immersed are brought into
contact there is no emission of gas from the silver; but that it is
copiously produced when the contact takes place in the same fluid. He
proceeds to relate some experiments which seem to show a difference
between galvanism and electricity, particularly that galvanism does not
appear to be attracted by metallic points. He also states an experiment
in which a piece of paper is placed on tinfoil, and rubbed with elastic
gum, and although the tinfoil is not insulated, sparks are produced on
raising the paper. Dr. Gibbes concludes with some arguments against
the doctrine of the decomposition of water; and advances as a probable
opinion, that oxygen and hydrogen gas are composed of water as a basis,
united with two other elements, which, combined, form heat.”
As remarked by Wilkinson (“Elements of Galvanism,” London, 1804, Vol.
II. pp. 385, 386), Dr. Gibbes’ hypothesis as to the composition of
water having been deduced from Richter’s experiments, and these latter
proving erroneous, the ingenious superstructure which the doctor has
erected must necessarily fall to the ground.
=A.D. 1802.=--Romagnosi (Gian Domenico Gregorio Giuseppe), Italian
jurist of Salsomaggiore, near Piacenza, who had devoted much time to
scientific investigation, and was about taking the law professorship
at the Parma University, communicates, Aug. 3, 1802, to the _Gazetta
di Trento_, his important paper entitled “Articulo sul Galvanismo.”
Of the latter, a translation, made from the reprint at p. 8 of Gilb.
Govi’s “Romagnosi e l’Elettro-magnetismo,” appears at pp. 259, 260 of
Fahie’s “History of Electric Telegraphy.”
To Romagnosi has by many been given the credit of having discovered
the directive influence of the galvanic current upon a magnetic
needle. This claim has of late years been again made for him, notably
by Dr. Donato Tommasi, of Paris (_Cosmos, les Mondes_ of June
30, 1883), while Dr. J. Hamel endeavoured to prove (pp. 37–39 of
“Historical Account ... Galv. and Mag. Elec. ...” reprinted by W. F.
Cooke for the Society of Arts, London, 1859) that Oersted was aware
of Romagnosi’s experiments at the time he published the discovery of
electro-magnetism. This is what Dr. Hamel says:
“I cannot forego stating my belief that Oersted knew of Romagnosi’s
discovery announced in 1802, which was eighteen years before the
publication of his own observations. It was mentioned in the book of
Giovanni Aldini (the nephew of Galvani) ... Oersted was in Paris 1802
and 1803, and it appears from the book of Aldini, that at the time
he finished it Oersted was still in communication with him; for he
says at the end (p. 376) he had not been able to add the information
received from Oersted, Doctor of the University at Copenhagen, about
the galvanic labours of scientific men in that country.... It deserves
to be remembered, that from Aldini’s book (“Essai théorique et
expérimental sur le galvanisme,” etc., Paris, 1804, qto. p. 191, or
Vol. I. of the 8vo ed., pp. 339–340) it was known that the chemist,
Giuseppe Mojon (Joseph Mojon, in the French), at Genoa, had before
1804 observed in unmagnetized needles exposed to the galvanic current
‘a sort of polarity.’ Joseph Izarn repeats this also in his ‘Manuel du
Galvanisme’ (Paris, An. xii., 1804, sec. iii. p. 120, or 1805, sec.
ix.), which book was one of those that by order were to be placed in
the library of every lycée of France.”
Robert Sabine remarks (“The Electric Telegraph,” 8vo., 1867, p. 22;
“History of the Electric Telegraph,” in Weale’s Rudimentary Treatises,
1869, pp. 23, 24; “History and Progress of the Electric Telegraph,” 3rd
ed., 1872, p. 23):
“The discovery of the power of a galvanic current to deflect a magnetic
needle, as well as to polarize an unmagnetized one, were known to,
and described as early as 1804, by Prof. Izarn.... The paragraph
which especially refers to this subject is headed ‘Appareil pour
reconnaitre l’action du galvanisme, sur la polarité d’une aiguille
aimantée.’ After explaining the way to prepare the apparatus, which
consists simply in putting a freely suspended magnetic needle parallel
and close to a straight metallic conductor through which a galvanic
current is circulating, he described the effects in the following
words: ‘According to the observations of Romagnosi, a physicist of
Trent, a magnetized needle which is submitted to a galvanic current
undergoes (_éprouve_) a declination; and according to those of J.
Mojon, a learned chemist of Genoa, unmagnetized needles acquire by this
means a sort of magnetic polarity.’ To Romagnosi, physicist of Trent,
therefore, and not, as is generally believed, to Oersted, physicist at
Copenhagen (who observed, in 1820, the phenomenon of the deflection of
a magnet needle by a voltaic current), is due the credit of having made
this important discovery.”
On the other hand, Gilb. Govi, who gives in his afore-named work a good
illustration of Romagnosi’s experiment, explains that it resembles in
no way the experiment of Oersted, there being no magnetic action of
the column on the magnetic needle, which latter is in fact repelled
by the mere electricity of the pile. Ronalds states that Romagnosi’s
experiment, much like that made by Schweigger (A. F. Gehlen’s
_Journal für die Chimie und Physik_, 1808, pp. 206–208), was
a modification if not a repetition of the one which Thomas Milner
performed with static electricity (T. Milner’s “Experiments and
Observations in Electricity,” London, 1783, p. 35), wherein a magnetic
needle forms the electrometer since improved upon by J. C. A. Peltier.
To the ordinary mind, a conclusive proof that Romagnosi had no part in
the discovery of electro-magnetism would seem to be, as Fahie rightly
observes, the fact that he himself never claimed any, although he lived
until 1835, fifteen years after the announcement made by the Danish
philosopher. Fahie calls attention, for some experiments in the same
line, to J. B. Van Mons’ _Journal de Chimie_, Bruxelles, January 1803,
p. 52, and to Nicholson’s _Journal of Nat. Phil._, Vol. VII. p. 304,
as well as to the 1746 and 1763 _Phil. Trans._ for investigations
made by B. Robins and Ebenezer Kinnersley, and he likewise alludes to
others recorded in the _Amer. Polytechnic Review_ for 1831, and in the
_Quarterly Journal of Science and the Arts_ for 1826, to all of which,
he says, as little real attention should be given as can properly be
attached to the observations of Aldini and of Izarn previously referred
to.
REFERENCES.--“Notizia di G. D. Romagnosi, stesa da Cesare Cantù,”
Milan, 1835; “Nuova Scelta d’ Opuscoli,” Vol. I. p. 201; _Gazetta di
Roveredo_ for 1802, No. 65; “Atti della Reale Accad. delle Scienze di
Torino,” Vol. IV, April 7, 1869; J. C. Poggendorff, Vol. II. pp. 681,
682; S. I. Prime’s “Life of Morse,” 1875, p. 264; _Phil. Mag._, Vol.
LVIII. p. 43; _Journal Soc. of Arts_, April 23, 1858, p. 356, and July
29, 1859, pp. 605, 606; _Bibl. Ital._, Vol. XCVIII. p. 60; Gilbert,
_Annalen_, 1821, Vol. LXVIII. p. 208; Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol.
XIII. p. 1318; “Biographie Générale,” Vol. XLII. pp. 574, 575, the last
named remarking that the discovery alluded to in the works of Aldini
and Izarn passed unnoticed till Oersted caused its value to be fully
appreciated.
=A.D. 1802.=--Parrot (George Friedrich), Russian physician and
professor at Dorpat, is, of all the European savants, the one who
developed most extensively the chemical theory of the voltaic pile. The
superior manner in which all his observations were carried on have led
many to consider him justly entitled to the credit of being the founder
of the theory (Figuier, “Exposition et Histoire,” etc., Paris, 1857,
Vol. IV. chapitre viii. pp. 426–429).
He commenced his experiments in 1801, and first recorded them in a
memoir which was crowned the same year by the Batavi Scientific Society
of Haarlem. His other papers on the same subject followed in rapid
succession, mainly through L. W. Gilbert’s _Annalen der Physik_,
under such heads as: “Sketch of a New Theory of Galvanic Electricity,
and Concerning the Decomposition of Water,” etc. (“Combination of
Induction and Chemical Action,” Gilb., Vol. XII. p. 49, Seypfer, p.
200), “How to Measure Electricity,” “Relative to the Electrometer,”
“The Effects of the Condenser,” and “The Theory of Volta Concerning
Galvanic Electricity,” all of which appeared in Vol. LXI. of the
_Annalen_. These papers were alluded to in his letter to the
editors of the _Annales de Chimie et de Physique_ (_An. Ch. et
Phys._, Vol. XLII. p. 45), and were afterward greatly amplified in
his “Treatise on Natural Philosophy.”
Parrot started with the determination to demolish completely the
theories of Volta and to thoroughly instruct him anew (_instruire
de toutes pièces le procès du physicien de Pavie_), and it must be
admitted that the many important facts enounced by Parrot were such as
would have ordinarily created a disturbing influence, but they became
known after Volta’s views had been thoroughly espoused by many German
and French scientists and consequently attracted comparatively little
attention.
At p. 466, Vol. II of Dr. Thomas Young’s “Course of Lectures,” London,
1807, reference is made to a paper in Gilbert’s _Annalen der
Physik_ (X. p. 11, also XIII. p. 244), concerning Parrot’s theory
of evaporation, with mention of the fact that the same paper contains
a proposal for inoculating the clouds with thunder and lightning, by
projecting bombs to a sufficient height.
Parrot also devised a scheme for telegraphing, which is described in
the _Mem. Acad. Petropol._, ser. vi. Vol. I for 1838, and is
alluded to in the Report on Telegraphs for the United States, made
at request of the Hon. Levi Woodbury, Secretary of the Treasury, by
the Committee on Science and the Arts of the Franklin Institute. The
proposed telegraph, as worded in the Report, “consists of a single
arm or _indicator_, which should be about nine feet long and one
foot wide, with a cross-piece at one end, about three feet long and
one wide; the whole being movable about an axis at its centre.... The
movements may be communicated with ease and certainty, either by an
endless chain passing over a wheel on the axis, and a wheel in the
building; or by a cog-wheel on the axis, and an endless screw on a
vertical bar. For night signals, three lamps are used, one swinging
beyond the end of the arm, the other two beyond the ends of the
cross-piece.”
REFERENCES.--Gilbert’s _Annalen_, Vols. XXI for 1805, LV for
1817, LX for 1819; J. H. Voigt’s _Magazin_, Vol. IV; Grindel’s
“Russ. Jahrb. f. Chem. u. Pharm.,” XI, 1810; L. Turnbull, “Elec.
Mag. Tel.,” p. 19; “Naturwiss. Abhandl. aus Dorpat.,” I, 1823;
“Roy. Soc. Cat. of Sc. Papers,” Vol. IV. pp. 765–767; _Annales
de Chimie_, Vol. XLII, 1829, pp. 42–45, and Vol. XLVI, 1831, p.
361; “Mém. sixième série Sc. Mathém.,” first part of Vols. III
and V; “Pander’s Beitr. z. Naturk, I.”
=A.D. 1802–1806.=--Berzelius (Baron Jöns Jacob Freiherr von), M.D.,
one of the greatest of modern chemists, native of East Gothland,
Sweden, publishes his “De Electricitatis ...” or “Physical Researches
on the Effect of Galvanism upon Organized Bodies,” which established
his reputation as an experimental philosopher and procured for him the
appointment of Assistant Professor of Medicine, Botany and Chemical
Pharmacy at Stockholm. Of the very great number of scientific papers
which he communicated to learned Societies, that entitled “An Essay on
the Division of Salts through Galvanism” deserves especial mention, for
in it, he lays down the electro-chemical theory, the honour of being
the original propounder of which is by many claimed for Sir Humphry
Davy.
In conjunction with Gottlieb Gahn, with W. Hisinger, of Elfstorps Bruk,
and with the Swedish physician, Magnus Martin de Pontin, Berzelius made
many very extensive observations and published numerous treatises, the
most important of which are embraced in the papers named at foot (Sir
Humphry Davy, “Bakerian Lectures,” London, 1840, more particularly at
pp. 13, 20, 109, 111, 122–123).
As has been before observed, the brilliant investigations of Berzelius
and Hisinger, together with those of Nicholson and Carlisle, of Dr.
William Henry and of Sir Humphry Davy, actually created a new epoch
in the history of chemistry. Prof. Wm. B. Rogers better expressed the
fact in his address of Jan. 16, 1879, when saying that “through the
labours mainly of Berzelius and of Davy, the great generalization of
electro-positive and electro-negative substances was established, and
with it the fruitful theory of the electro-chemical exposition of
compound bodies.” Such of the experiments of Berzelius as were repeated
by Sir Humphry Davy before the English Royal Institution, are embodied
in Davy’s paper (partly alluded to above in “Bakerian Lectures”) which
was read before the Royal Society, June 30, 1808. According to J. F. W.
Herschel, Berzelius and Hisinger ascertained it as a general law, that
in all of the chemical decompositions which they effected, the acids
and oxygen become transferred to, and accumulated around, the positive
pole, and hydrogen, alkaline earths and metals around the negative pole
of a voltaic circuit; being transferred in an invisible, and, as it
were, a latent or torpid state, by the action of the electric current,
through considerable spaces, and even through large quantities of water
or other liquid, again to reappear with all their properties at their
appropriate resting-places.
Berzelius discovered selenium while examining certain substances found
in the acid manufactured at Gripsholm, Sweden. He includes selenium
among the metals; but as it is a nonconductor of electricity, also a
most imperfect conductor of heat, and as, in other respects, it bears
much analogy to sulphur, it is generally placed among the non-metallic
combustibles (Brande, “Manual of Chemistry,” London, 1848, Vol. I. p.
435; Berzelius, “Lehrbuch der Chemie,” “Traité,” etc., Paris, 1846,
Vol. II. p. 184; “Annales de Chimie et de Physique,” Vol. IX. p. 160;
“Annals of Philosophy,” Vol. XIII. p. 401 and Vol. VIII, N.S. p. 104).
The important rôle which the high electrical resistance of selenium has
in its early days been made to play by Mr. Willoughby Smith, Dr. Werner
Siemens and others, is alluded to at pp. 791–794 of Vol. IV supplement
to “Ure’s Dict. of Arts,” etc., London, 1878.
For full accounts of Berzelius’ numerous contributions to science,
attention is called to the following:
REFERENCES.--“Royal Society Catal. of Sc. Papers,” Vol. I. pp.
330–341; “Gedächtnissrede auf Berzelius ...” Berlin, 1851;
G. Forchammer, “J. J. Berzelius,” 1849; Poggendorff, Vol. I.
pp. 172–175; “Afhandl. i Fisik. ...”; Jos. Thomas, “Dict. of
Biography,” 1870, Vol. I. p. 341; “Report Smiths. Inst.” for
1862, p. 380; “Vetensk. Acad. Handl.”; “La Grande Encyclopédie,”
Vol. VI. p. 478. See likewise, “Journal Frankl. Inst.,” 3rd
Ser., Vol. XVI. pp. 343–348; Faraday’s “Experim. Researches,”
Arts., 746, 870, 960, and Vol. II. pp. 226–228; Gahn at p. 226
of Becquerel’s “Eléments d’El. Ch.,” Paris, 1843; “Annalen der
Physik,” Vol. XXVII. pp. 270, 311, 316, and Vol. XXXVI. p. 260;
Gehlen’s “Journal für die Chem. und Phys.,” Vol. I. p. 115 and
Vol. III. p. 177; John Black, “An Attempt ... Electro-Chem.
Theory,” London, 1814; Gmelin’s “Chemistry,” Vol. I. pp. 400,
457–458, 461–462; “Encycl. Metrop.” (Galvanism), Vol. IV. pp.
221–222; “Sc. Am. Suppl.,” No. 284, p. 4523, for report of
Helmholtz’s Faraday Lecture of April 5, 1881, taken from the
“Chemical News”; Sturgeon’s “Annals,” Vol. VII. pp. 300–303;
Vol. VIII. p. 80; Whewell, “History of the Inductive Sciences,”
1859, Vol. II. pp. 304, 347–348; Thos. Thomson, “An Outline of
the Sciences ...” London, 1830, Chap. XIV. p. 532; Berzelius
and Wöhler on Volcanoes, in Poggendorff’s “Annalen,” Bd. I. s.
221, and Bd. XI. s. 146; “Journal des Savants” for June 1892,
pp. 375–385; J. Berzelius and F. Wöhler, Leipzig, 1901; “Svenskt
Biografiskt Handlexikon,” Herm. Hofberg, Stockholm, pp. 88–89;
“Bibl. Britan.,” Vol. LI, 1812, pp. 174–183 (“Nicholson’s
Journal,” July 1812) for John Gough’s remarks on the hygrometer
of Berzelius (Phil. Mag., Vol. XXXIII. p. 177); “Annales de
Chimie,” Vol. LI. pp. 167, 171; Vol. LXXXVI for 1813, p. 146;
Vol. LXXXVII. pp. 286, etc.; also Vol. LXXIII. pp. 198, 200–201,
the last named giving an account of the ammoniacal amalgam which
Berzelius and Pontin were the first to explain.
=A.D. 1802.=--Thompson (Sir Benjamin), Count Rumford, an eminent
scientist, native of Woburn in Massachusetts, Knt., F.R.S., one of the
founders of the English Royal Institution, publishes his “Philosophical
Memoirs ... being a collection of ... Experimental Investigations ...
of Natural Philosophy.”
Though more properly identified with important observations and
researches on heat, the question of the nature of which, Dr. Edward
L. Youmans says, he was the first to take out of the domain of
metaphysics, where it had stood since the days of Aristotle, he has
given accounts of some highly important experiments regarding the
relative intensities and the chemical properties of light, heat and
electricity, which can be seen at pp. 273, etc., Vol. LXXVI. part ii.
of the _Phil. Trans._ for 1786. Heat spreads in every direction,
whilst the electrical fluid may be arrested in its progress by certain
bodies, which have on that account been called non-conductors, but he
shows that the Torricellian vacuum affords, on the contrary, a ready
passage to the electrical fluid while being a bad conductor of heat.
At p. 30 of George E. Ellis’ “Memoir of Sir Benjamin Thompson,”
published in Boston (no date), is reproduced Rumford’s “Account of
what expense I have been at toward getting an electrical machine”
during 1771, and at pp. 481–488, Vol. I, also pp. 350, 351, Vol. III
of the “Complete Works of Count Rumford,” published by the American
Academy of Sciences, allusion is made to the galvanic influence in the
construction of utensils.
REFERENCES.--Sir W. Thomson, “Mathematical and Physical Papers,”
London, 1890, Vol. III. pp. 123, 124; _Phil. Mag._, Vol. IX for
1801, p. 315; Silliman’s _American Journal of Science_, Vol.
XXXIII. p. 21; “Biog. Universelle,” Tome XXXVII. p. 81; “Journal
des Savants,” for Dec. 1881 and Jan. 1882; “Bibl. Britan.,” Vol.
LVI., 1814, pp. 398–401 (necrology).
=A.D. 1802.=--Pepys (William Haseldine, Sr.), son of an English
manufacturer of surgical instruments, who became F.R.S. and was one
of the founders of the Askesian Society, as well as of both the
London Institution and of the London Geological Society, constructs,
during the month of February 1802, the strongest pile hitherto known.
It consists of sixty pairs of zinc and copper plates, each six feet
square, held in two large troughs filled with thirty-two pounds of
water containing two pounds of azotic, or nitric, acid.
It is said that with this battery he succeeded in melting iron wires
ranging in diameter from one two-hundredth to one-tenth of an inch, the
combustion developing an extremely bright light, while platinum wires,
one thirty-second of an inch in diameter, turned to white heat and
melted in globules at the point of contact. Charcoal was permanently
ignited a length of nearly two inches and the galvanic action was
strong enough to light it after passing through a circuit of sixteen
persons holding one another by the hand. Gold leaf displayed a bright
white light, accompanied with smoke; silver leaf gave an intense green
light without sparks, but with still more smoke; while sheets of lead
burned actively, with accompaniment of very red sparks mixed with the
flame (Figuier, “Exposition,” etc., Paris, 1857, Vol. IV. p. 347).
Later on, another battery was constructed by him for the London
Institution. This consisted of 400 pairs of plates five inches square,
and of 40 pairs one foot square. With it, Davy ignited cotton, sulphur,
resin, oil and ether, melted a platinum wire, burned several inches of
an iron wire one three-hundredth of an inch in diameter, and boiled
easily such liquids as oil and water, even decomposing and transforming
them into gases. It was during the year 1808 that Pepys finished
the enormous battery of 2000 double plates already alluded to under
the Cruikshanks (A.D. 1800) and the Davy (A.D. 1801) articles, and
which is to be found described at p. 110 of the “Elements of Chemical
Philosophy.”
One year before that (1807) Pepys constructed a new form of eudiometer,
of which a description was given before the Royal Society on the 4th of
June, as shown at p. 270 Vol. I of the “Abstracts of Papers,” etc., of
that Institution, as well as in the 1807 volume of the _Philosophical
Transactions_.
Of the many ingenious experiments by which Pepys distinguished himself,
scarcely none attracted more attention than those which are referred
to in the last-named _Transactions_ for 1866, pp. 339–439. It is only
since 1815, when he employed the electric current to heat iron wire
and diamond dust together, whereby he obtained steel, that the direct
carburization of iron by the diamond has been clearly established.
Prior to this date, during 1798, Clouet had melted a little crucible of
iron weighing 57·8 grammes containing a diamond weighing 0·907 gramme,
and produced a fused mass of steel. Guyton de Morveau reported upon
Clouet’s experiment in the _Annales de Chimie_ for 1799 (Vol. XXXI. p.
328) and his investigations were repeated by many scientists, notably
by Margueritte, as recently as 1865. The latter’s observations, which
were communicated to the _Annales de Chimie et de Physique_ (Tome
VI), showed that, although carburization can be effected by simple
contact of carbon and iron in a gaseous atmosphere, it is nevertheless
true that in the ordinary process of cementation the carbonic oxide
gas plays an important part, which had until then been overlooked
(Translation of Prof. W. C. Roberts-Austen, F.R.S. For Mr. Children’s
investigations in the same line, see the _Phil. Trans._ for 1815, p.
370, also A.D. 1809).
Sir Humphry Davy employed in his experiments on the decomposition and
composition of the fixed alkalies two mercurial gasometers of Pepys’
design, described in No. 14 of the _Phil. Trans._ for 1807, in
conjunction with the same apparatus used by Messrs. Allen and Pepys for
the combustion of the diamond (“Bakerian Lectures,” London, 1840, pp.
84 and 93).
During the year 1822 Pepys constructed for electro-magnetic
experiments a very large spiral galvanic battery, which was put
together for the London Institution on the plan of the one first
built by Dr. Robert Hare, Professor of Chemistry in the University
of Pennsylvania. Pepys called it a _calorimotor_, by reason of its
remarkable power of producing heat, and it is well illustrated in the
8th Edit. “Encyclopædia Britannica” article on “Voltaic Electricity.”
It consisted only of two metallic sheets, copper and zinc, fifty to
sixty feet long by two feet wide, coiled around a cylinder of wood and
prevented from coming together by three ropes of horse-hair, the whole
being suspended over a tub of acid so that, by a pulley or otherwise,
it could be immersed or taken up. As stated in Vol. V of the _Trans. of
the Amer. Phil. Soc._, this battery required nearly fifty-five gallons
of fluid, and the solution used contained about one-fortieth of strong
nitrous acid.
When, as Noad observes, it is stated that a piece of platinum wire may
be heated to redness by a pair of plates only four inches long and two
broad, the calorific power of such an arrangement as the above may be
imagined to have been immense. The energy of the simple circle depends
on the size of the plates, the intensity of the chemical action on
the oxidizable metal, the rapidity of its oxidation, and the speedy
removal of the oxide. Pouillet is said to have constructed one of these
batteries with twelve couples for the Paris Faculté des Sciences, and
found it very powerful in producing large quantities of electricity
with low tension. The best liquid for this battery was water with
one-fortieth in volume of sulphuric acid and one-sixtieth of nitric
acid. With the above-described battery of Mr. Pepys, Sir Humphry Davy
performed a remarkable experiment which is to be found described in
the _Phil. Trans._ for 1823. A similar apparatus was produced
independently, at about the same time, by Dr. Seebeck, of Berlin.
Another of Pepys’ inventions is the substitution, for the tinfoil
coatings within the glass of Bennet’s electroscope, of two plates,
forming an acute angle, which, by means of a regulating screw, can be
adjusted to any required distance from the gold leaves. The angular
part is secured to the bottom; the open part perpendicularly upward.
By this mode of approximating the coatings to the gold leaves, the
resistance being diminished, a weaker intensity of electricity suffices
for their disturbance.
REFERENCES.--_Quarterly Journal of Science_, Vol. I for 1816;
_Phil. Mag._, Vol. XXI. p. 241; XLI. p. 15; Becquerel, Vol. I.
p. 34. Mr. William H. Pepys, Jr., published descriptions of the
newly invented galvanometer and of the large galvanic apparatus
in the _Phil. Mag._, Vol. X., June 1801, p. 38, and Vol. XV
for 1803, p. 94; “Cat. Sc. Papers Roy. Soc.,” Vol. II. p. 192;
“Bibl. Britan.,” Vol. XVIII, 1801, p. 343, and Vol. XXII, 1803,
p. 297.
=A.D. 1803.=--Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (Etienne), a very eminent French
naturalist, once the pupil of Haüy, whose life he was the means of
saving during the massacre of September 1792, is the first to give a
thoroughly complete description of the electrical organs and functions
of the _raia torpedo_, of the _gymnotus electricus_, of the _silurus
electricus_, and of other similar species of fishes. His work on the
subject, entitled “Sur l’anatomie comparée,” etc., is alluded to
in Vol. I. An. xi. No. 5 of the “Annales du Museum,” whence it is
translated for the fifteenth volume of the _Phil. Mag._
His analyzation of the fluid in the cells of the _torpedo_ showed it
to consist of albumen and gelatine; and he discovered some organs
analogous to those of the _torpedo_ in different species of the same
genus _raia_, which, strange to say, do not appear possessed of any
electrical power.
The electrical organs of the _silurus electricus_ he found to be much
less complicated than those of other electrical fishes. They lie
immediately below the skin and stretch all around the body of the
animal. Their substance, he says, is a reticulated mass, the meshes
of which are plainly visible, and these cells are filled, like those
of other electrical fishes, with an albuminous gelatinous matter. The
nerves distributed over the electrical organs proceed from the brain,
and the two nerves of the eighth pair have a direction and nature
peculiar to this species. (Consult C. Matteucci, “Traité des Phénomènes
...” Paris, 1844, Chaps. VI and VII. pp. 301–327.)
In his great work on Egypt (Pl. XII, 2) Geoffroy gives the figure of
a _malapterus electricus_ (see Adanson, A.D. 1751) which is opened
to show the viscera, but, by a singular inaccuracy, says Mr. James
Wilson, the fish is represented as scaly, whereas there are no scales
whatever upon this fish, and no fish known to possess electric powers
has either scales or spines. The _torpedo_, the _gymnotus_ and the
_malapterus_ have all naked skins. The _tetraodon electricus_ (see Shaw
at A.D. 1791) is also destitute of spines on the skin, although all its
congeners have skins as bristly as those of a hedgehog.
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (Isidore), son of Etienne, was also a
distinguished naturalist. He became Assistant Professor of Zoölogy to
his father in 1829, likewise his assistant at the Faculté des Sciences
in 1837, and, when Etienne became blind, during the year 1841, he
succeeded to the Professorship of Zoölogy at the Museum of Natural
History. He is the author of “The Life, Works and Theories (_Vie,
Travaux et Doctrine_) of Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire,” Paris, 1847.
REFERENCES.--Gilbert’s _Annalen_, XIV. p. 397; _Bulletin Soc.
Phil._, No. 70; Geo. Wilson’s “Life of Cavendish,” London, 1851,
p. 469, alluding to the later experiments on electrical fishes
made by Faraday (1838), Dr. James Stark, of Edinburgh (1844),
Prof. Goodsir (1845), and Dr. C. Robin (1846). Consult also,
_Journal de Physique_, Vol. LVI. p. 242, and the complete list
of Geoffroy’s works in Callisen’s “Medicinisches-Schriftsteller
Lexicon”; “Memoir of M. Isidore G. Saint Hilaire,” by M. De
Quatrefages, in “Report of Smithsonian Institution” for 1872,
pp. 384–394; “Journal des Savants” for May-Aug., 1864; “Roy.
Soc. Cat. of Sc. Papers,” Vol. II. pp. 824–832; Vol. VI. p. 669;
Vol. VII. p. 757.
=A.D. 1803.=--Carpue (J. C. S.), English scientist, relates, in his
“Introduction to Electricity and Galvanism,” published in London, some
noteworthy experiments on the curative action of common electricity.
He repeated many of the investigations of Giovanni Aldini, and, in the
presence of Dr. Pearson and other medical gentlemen, experimented upon
the body of Michael Carney, immediately after his execution for murder.
Carpue’s main object was to ascertain whether galvanism, applied at
once to the nerves, could excite action in the internal parts, and
especially in the respiratory organs. He first made an opening into
the windpipe and, after introducing about three pints of oxygen into
the lungs, he applied conductors to the phrenic nerve as well as to
other parts of the body, the lungs being at the same time occasionally
inflated, but no action could be excited in the diaphragm. The
application of conductors to the inside of the nostrils and elsewhere,
however, excited very considerable contractions in the right auricle
more than three hours after death, the ventricles being, as in Aldini’s
experiments, perfectly motionless.
REFERENCES.--“Galvanic Experiments Made by Carpue on the Body of
Michael Carney,” etc., London, 1804 (_Phil. Mag._, Vol. XVIII.
p. 90); the “Encyclopedia Metropolitana,” article “Galvanism,”
Vol. IV. pp. 105, 106, also the “Introduction,” etc., above
named for descriptions of Mr. Cuthbertson’s plate electrical
machine and of Mr. Read’s condenser.
=A.D. 1803.=--Hachette (Jean Nicholas Pierre), a protégé of Monge,
who became professor at the Paris Ecole Polytechnique, where he had
among his pupils Poisson, Arago and Fresnel, presents to the Institut
National the dry pile which was the result of the many experiments he
had carried on in conjunction with Charles Bernard Desormes, who was
then known as a prominent French scientist and manufacturer of chemical
products.
Their idea was to establish the development of electricity by
simple contact, and they sought to obtain a substance which would
satisfactorily replace the wet discs, and not be affected by the
metals, as had been all the liquids hitherto employed (H. Boissier,
“Mémoire,” etc., Paris, 1801). After numerous investigations they
adopted a compound consisting of common starch and either salts,
varnishes or gums, with which they made the necessary discs. These
discs were dried and placed alternately between the copper and zinc
couples, but were afterward found to be too easily affected by moisture
to prove very effective (D. Tommasi, “Traité des Piles Electriques,”
Paris, 1889, p. 529).
In the columns of the _Annales de Chimie_, named below, will be
found detailed the numerous experiments with the galvanic pile
carried on individually and collectively by Hachette, Desormes and
other scientists; those of Hachette and Thénard upon the ignition of
metallic wires claiming especial notice. Prof. John Farrar (“Elem.
of Elec. Magn.,” etc., Cambridge, 1826, p. 167) calls attention to
the latter and in the _Phil. Mag._ for 1821 will be found an account
of the researches of the above-named scientists made during the year
1805, to establish more properly the analogy between galvanism and
magnetism. Hachette and Desormes endeavoured to ascertain the direction
which would be taken by a voltaic pile, whose poles were not joined,
when freely suspended horizontally. Their pile, as Fahie gives it,
was composed of 1480 thin plates of copper tinned with zinc, of the
diameter of a five-franc piece, and was placed upon a boat floating
on the water of a large vat; but it assumed no determinate direction,
although a magnetized steel bar, of a weight nearly equal to that of
the pile, and likewise placed upon the boat, would turn, after some
oscillations, into the magnetic meridian.
REFERENCES.--_Annales de Chimie_, Vol. XXXVII. pp. 284–321;
XLIV. pp. 267–284; XLVII (Biot’s Observations), p. 13; XLIX.
pp. 45–54, and XLV for 1808. See also, the _Annales_ for 1834,
as well as Vol. XLII. p. 125, for experiments of MM. Desormes
and Clement on the fixed alkalies; _Journal de Physique_
of Sept. 1820, for the paper of Hachette and Ampère on the
electro-magnetic experiments of Oersted and Ampère; _Annales de
Chimie et de Physique_, Vol. II for May 1816, pp. 76–79, and V.
p. 191; _Phil Mag._, Vol. LVII. p. 43; L. W. Gilbert, _Annalen
der Physik_, Vols. IX. pp. 18–39; XVII. pp. 414–427; _Journal de
l’Ecole Polytechnique_, Vol. IV for 1802; XI. p. 284; Leithead,
“Electricity,” p. 252; _Bull. de la Soc. Philomathique_, No. 83;
P. Sue, aîné, “Hist. du Galv.,” Paris, An. X, 1802, Vol. II. pp.
160, 167, 188, 345 (Hachette et Thénard), and p. 371; Joseph
Izarn, “Manuel du Galvanisme,” An. XII, 1804, s. 4. p. 179;
Poggendorff, Vol. I. pp. 562, 985; Larousse, “Dict. Universel,”
Vol. VI. p. 576; “Royal Society Catalogue of Scientific Papers,”
Vol. III. pp. 106–109.
=A.D. 1803.=--Biot (Jean Baptiste), who, in 1800, at the age of
twenty-six, was made Professor of Natural Philosophy at the “Collège
de France,” and afterward ranked among the first astronomers and
mathematicians, gives an account of his journey to Aigle, in the
Department of l’Orne, whither he was sent by the Government to examine
and report upon a very extraordinary shower of meteorites. The facts
obtained by him were communicated to the Institute on the 29th
Messidor, An. XI, and also appeared at the time in the Paris _Journal
des Débats_ (_Phil. Mag._, Vol. XVI. p. 299).
On the 23rd of August of the year following (1804) Biot accompanied
Gay-Lussac in the latter’s first memorable balloon ascent. This
aeronautic voyage, sanctioned by the French Government mainly through
the efforts of Berthollet and Laplace, was the first of the kind
undertaken solely for a scientific object.
Besides numerous barometers and electrometers, Biot and Gay-Lussac
carried with them two compasses, a dipping needle and other
instruments. For the examination of the electricity of different
strata of the atmosphere, they had several metallic wires from 60 to
300 feet in length, also a small electrophorus feebly charged, while
for galvanic experiments they added some discs of copper and zinc,
together with a supply of frogs, insects and birds. An account of
the exceedingly important results obtained by those scientists at
different elevations, of which the highest reached exceeded four miles,
was read before the National Institute, Aug. 27, 1804. It was also
published in London during the latter year, and alluded to at p. 371,
Vol. XIX of the _Philosophical Magazine_. Mary Somerville remarks
(“Connection of the Physical Sciences,” 1846, p. 334) that according
to the observations of Biot and Gay-Lussac, the magnetic action is
not confined to the surface of the earth, but extends into space. The
moon has become highly magnetic by induction, in consequence of her
proximity to the earth, and because her greatest diameter always points
toward it. Her influence on terrestrial magnetism is now ascertained;
the magnetism of the hemisphere that is turned toward the earth
attracts the pole of our needles that is turned toward the south and
increases the magnetism of our hemisphere; and as the magnetic, like
the gravitating force, extends through space, the induction of the sun,
moon and planets must occasion perpetual variations in the intensity
of terrestrial magnetism, by the continual changes in their relative
positions.
In 1805 Biot published an investigation of the laws which should
govern the dip and intensity, in the hypothesis of a magnet situated
at the centre of the earth, having its poles infinitely close to each
other and directed to opposite points on the surface of the globe
and, as justly adds Major Edward Sabine (Report Seventh Meeting Brit.
Asso.), it is a well-known consequence of this hypothesis that the
lines of equal dip and equal intensity on the earth’s surface should
everywhere be parallel to each other. The phenomena of electricity
had been brought within the pale of mixed mathematics by C. A.
Coulomb (A.D. 1785), whose considerations mainly attached
to the distribution of electricity upon the surface of spheres, and
his investigations were at once diligently pursued by the French
scientists, Biot, Laplace and Poisson. Laplace, who undertook to
investigate the distribution of electricity upon the surface of
ellipsoids of revolution, showed that the thickness of the coating
of the fluid at the pole was to its thickness at the equator as the
equatorial is to the polar diameter, or, what is the same thing, that
the repulsive force of the fluid, or its tension at the pole, is to
that at the equator as the polar is to the equatorial axis. Biot
extended this investigation to all spheroids differing little from
a sphere, whatever may be the irregularity of their figure, and his
solution of the problem will be found in No. 51 of the _Bulletin des
Sciences_. He also determined, analytically, that the losses of
electricity form a geometrical progression when the two surfaces of a
jar or plate of coated glass are discharged by successive contacts, and
he found that the same law regulated the discharge when a series of
jars or plates are placed in communication with each other (Whewell,
“History of the Inductive Sciences,” Vol. II. pp. 208, 223; Noad’s
“Manual,” p. 15; Eighth “Britannica,” Vol. VIII. p. 531. For Biot’s
experiments, touching upon electrical attraction and demonstrating
practically the distribution of electricity upon the surface of a
conductor, see the last-named volume of the “Britannica,” pp. 552, 556,
and Noad, p. 56).
In conjunction with Frederick Cuvier, Mr. Biot investigated the
connection of chemical charge with the production of electricity. Like
Mr. W. H. Pepys, they examined the effect produced by the pile on
the atmosphere in which it is located. Mr. Pepys placed the pile in
an atmosphere of oxygen, and found that in the course of a night 200
cubic inches of the gas had been absorbed, but that in an atmosphere
of azote the pile ceased to act. Biot and Cuvier likewise observed the
quantity of oxygen absorbed, and inferred from their experiments that
“although, strictly speaking, the evolution of electricity in the pile
was produced by oxidation, the share which this had in producing the
effects of the instrument bore no comparison with that which was due
to the contact of the metals, the extremity of the series being in
communication with the ground.” Their investigation was attended by
the discovery that as long as any oxygen remained to be absorbed, the
chemical and physiological effects of the apparatus still continued,
but with decreasing intensity; so that if the conducting wires attached
to the two poles are made to return from under the receiver in tubes of
glass they may be used to decompose water and communicate shocks to the
organs. All these effects, however, cease when the surrounding oxygen
is exhausted (_Annales de Chimie_, Vol. XXXIX. p. 242; _Soc.
Philomathique_, An. IX. p. 40; Sue, “Histoire du Galv.,” Vol. II. p.
161).
In the second volume of Biot’s “Traité de Physique” will be found
recorded his many observations on the nature and origin of the electric
light, extracts from which are given by Sir David Brewster in the
electricity article of the “Britannica.” Biot remarks that the light
which is observed during an electric explosion was for a long time
considered by philosophers as a modification of the electric principle
itself, which they supposed to be the quality of becoming luminous
at a certain degree of accumulation (John Farrar, “Elem. of Elec.,
Mag. and El. Mag.,” 1826, p. 118). Brewster adds that this eminent
French writer, however, considered the opinion as erroneous, and he
has devoted a whole chapter to prove that electricity has the same
origin as the light disengaged from air by mechanical pressure, “and
that it is purely the effect of the compression produced on the air by
the explosion of electricity.” In order to establish this theory, Mr.
Biot has stated, on the authority of several experiments, “that the
intensity of electric light depends always on the ratio which exists
between the quantity of electricity transmitted and the resistance
of the medium”; and he has shown, by an experiment with Kinnersley’s
thermometer, “that at each spark the air of the cylinder, driven by
the repulsive force, presses on the surface of mercury, which rises
suddenly in the small tube, and falls back again immediately after the
explosion.” He adds:
“This indication proves the separation produced between the particles
of the mass of air where the electricity passes; and from what
we know of its extreme velocity it is certain that the particles
exposed immediately to its shock ought in the first moment to sustain
individually all the effect of the compression. They ought, then, from
this cause alone to disengage light, as when they are subjected to any
other mechanical pressure. Thus one part at least of the electric light
is necessarily due to this cause; and this being the case, there is no
experiment which can lead us to conjecture that it is not all due to
this cause.”
REFERENCES.--“Encycl. Brit.,” 1857, Vol. XIV. pp. 7, 63,
and _Journal de Physique_, Vol. LIX. p. 450. For Mr. Biot’s
observations on the magnetism of metals and minerals, and on
the distribution of magnetism in artificial magnets, as well
as for his improvement upon Coulomb’s method of constructing
the latter, see the last-named volume of the “Britannica,”
pp. 23, 26, 71, and Noad’s “Manual of Electricity,” London,
1859, pp. 528, 535, while, for Biot’s very ingenious theory
relative to the aurora, see Lardner and Walker’s “Manual of
Elec. Mag. and Meteor.,” London, 1844, Vol. II. p. 235, and
Noad, pp. 232, 233. The observations concerning the laws
regulating the intensity of electro-magnetic phenomena, made by
MM. Biot and Savary, are alluded to by Noad at pp. 644, 645,
in the “Encycl. Metropol.” (Elec. Magn.), Vol. IV. p. 427; and
Whewell’s “History of the Inductive Sciences,” 1859, Vol. II.
pp. 245–249; “Scientific papers of the Royal Society,” Vol.
I. pp. 374–386; Biot’s “Traité de Phys. Exp. et Math.,” Vol.
II. p. 457; _Journal de Physique_, Vol. LIX. pp. 315, 318;
Wilkinson’s “Elem. of Galv.,” Vol. II. pp. 38, 123, 154, 361,
Chap. XVI; Humboldt’s “Cosmos,” treating of Aerolites, of the
Zodiacal Light and of the figure of the earth; Noad, “Manual,”
p. 530; Eighth “Ency. Brit.,” Vol. VIII. p. 580; Sir H. Davy,
“Bakerian Lectures,” London, 1840, p. 3, alluding to Biot
and Thénard in No. 40 of the _Moniteur_ for 1806; “Encycl.
Metropol.,” Vol. IV. (Electro-Magn.), p. 7; Harris “Rudim.
Magn.,” Part III, London, 1852, pp. 116, 117; Gautherot at A.D.
1801; Figuier, “Exposition,” etc., Paris, 1857, Vol. iv. p. 429;
“Lib. of Useful Knowl.” (Electricity), p. 64 and (Magnetism),
p. 89; “Soc. Philomath.,” An. IX. p. 45; An. XI. pp. 120, 129;
Becquerel’s “Traité,” 1856, Vol. III. p. 11; _Phil. Mag._, Vols.
XVI. p. 224; XXI. p. 362; “Mém. de l’Institut” for 1802, Vol.
V; “Annales des Mines” for 1820, relative to the experiments
on electro-magnetism made by Oersted, Arago, Ampère and Biot;
_Phil. Mag._, Vol. XXII. pp. 248, 249, for the magnetical
observations made by Biot and Arago; _Comptes Rendus_ for 1839,
I Sem., VIII, No. 7, p. 233, for the observations of Biot and
Becquerel on the nature of the radiation emanating from the
electric spark; “Chemical News,” London, 1868, Vol. XVI for
John Tyndall’s lecture on some experiments of Faraday, Biot
and Savary; “Atti dell’ Accad. dei Nuovi Lincei, Ann.,” XV.
Sess., IV. del 2 Marzo 1862, for the biography of J. B. Biot,
who died Feb. 2, 1862, within two months of the completion of
his eighty-eighth year. “Journal des Savants” for June and July
1820, April 1821, and for Feb.-Mar.-April 1846.
J. B. Biot’s son, Edward Constant Biot (1803–1850), is the author of
the extended catalogue of shooting stars and other meteors observed in
China during twenty-four centuries, which was presented to the French
Academy during 1841, and a supplement to which was published at Paris
in 1848 (_Acad. des Sciences_, _Savants Etrangers_, Tome X).
=A.D. 1803–1805.=--Acting upon the discovery of Gautherot, the
Bavarian philosopher Johann Wilhelm Ritter (1776–1810) is the first to
construct an electrical accumulator.
Ritter’s “ardency of research and originality of invention” had, as
far back as 1796, shown itself in the numerous very able scientific
papers relating to Electricity, Galvanism and Magnetism which he had
communicated mainly through L. W. Gilbert’s _Annalen der Physik_,
J. H. Voigt’s _Mag. für Naturkunde_ and A. F. Gehlen’s _Journal
für die Chemie_, all which obtained recognition in several foreign
publications. These papers secured for him membership in the Munich
Academy during the year 1805.
From Prof. H. W. Dove’s discourse before the Society for Scientific
Lectures, of Berlin, the following is extracted:
“As the (then considered) essential portions of a galvanic circuit
were two metals and a fluid, innumerable combinations were possible,
from which the most suitable had to be chosen. This gigantic task was
undertaken by Ritter, an inhabitant of a village near Leignitz, who
almost sacrificed his senses to the investigation. He discovered the
peculiar pile which bears his name, and opened that wonderful circle
of actions and reactions which, through the subsequent discoveries of
Oersted, Faraday, Seebeck and Peltier, drew with ever-tightening band
the isolated forces of nature into an organic whole. But he died early,
as Günther did before him, exhausted by restless labour, sorrow and
disordered living.”
Ritter’s _charging or secondary pile_ consists of but one metal,
the discs of which are separated by circular pieces of cloth, flannel
or cardboard, moistened in a liquid which cannot chemically affect the
metal. When the extremities are put in communication with the poles of
an ordinary voltaic pile it becomes electrified and can be substituted
for the latter; and it will retain the charge, so that for a time there
can be obtained from it sparks, shocks, as well as the decomposition of
water.
The writer of the article at p. 268 of the April 1802 _Monthly
Magazine_, making reference to _an artificial magnet_ discovered at
Vienna (Bakewell, “Elec. Science,” p. 40), no doubt alludes to the
above-named charging or secondary pile, in the construction of which
Ritter made many modifications. At first he arranged 32 copper and
card discs in three series, two of which series contained 16 copper
discs while the intermediate series consisted of 32 card discs. He
then placed them so that the discs alternated, employing but 31 discs
of copper, and he also used 64 as well as 128 copper discs alternating
with similar ones of cardboard. In each case he compared the chemical
action through the decomposition of water as well as the physiological
effect or shock and the physical property or electrical tension. The
results obtained are given in his many papers alluded to below.
Independently of the English scientists he discovered the property
possessed by the voltaic pile of decomposing water as well as saline
compounds, and of collecting oxygen and acids at the positive pole
while hydrogen and the bases collect at the negative pole. He conceived
that he had procured oxygen from water without hydrogen, by making
sulphuric acid the medium of the communication at the negative surface,
but, as Davy says, in this case sulphur is deposited, while the
oxygen from the acid and the hydrogen from the water are respectively
repelled, and the new combination produced.
A correspondent in Alex. Tilloch’s _Philosophical Magazine_ (Vol.
XXIII for 1805–1806, pp. 51–54--Extracts from a letter of M. Christ.
Bernoulli abridged from Van Mons’ _Journal_, Vol. VI) thus alludes
to some of Ritter’s experiments communicated in May 1805 to the Munich
Royal Society:
“I have seen him galvanize a louis d’or. He places it between two
pieces of pasteboard thoroughly wetted, and keeps it six or eight
minutes in the circuit of the pile. Thus it becomes charged, though
not immediately in contact with the conducting wires. If applied to
the recently bared crural nerves of a frog the usual contractions
ensue. I put a louis d’or thus galvanized into my pocket, and Ritter
told me, some minutes after, that I might discover it from the rest
by trying them in succession upon the frog. I made the trial, and
actually distinguished, among several others, one in which only the
exciting quality was evident. The charge is retained in proportion to
the time that the coin has been in the circuit of the pile. Thus, of
three different coins, which Ritter charged in my presence, none lost
its charge under five minutes. A metal thus retaining the galvanic
charge, though touched by the hand and other metals, shows that this
communication of galvanic virtue has more affinity with magnetism than
with electricity, and assigns to the galvanic fluid an intermediate
rank between the two. Ritter can, in the way I have just described,
charge at once any number of pieces. It is only necessary that the two
extreme pieces of the number communicate with the pile through the
intervention of wet pasteboards. It is with metallic discs charged
in this manner and placed upon one another, with pieces of wet
pasteboard alternately interposed, that he constructs his charging
pile, which ought, in remembrance of its inventor, to be called the
_Ritterian pile_. The construction of this pile shows that each
metal galvanized in this way acquires polarity, as the needle does when
touched with a magnet.”
The same correspondent alludes to experiments made with Ritter’s
battery of 100 pairs of metallic plates, the latter having their edges
turned up so as “to prevent the liquid pressed out from flowing away”
(_Phil. Mag._, Vol. XXIII. p. 51), but he says he was unable to
see either Ritter’s great battery of 2000 pieces, or the one of 50
pieces, each 36 inches square, the action of which is said to have
continued very perceptibly for a fortnight. He writes as follows:
“After showing me his experiments on the different contractibility of
various muscles (“Beiträge zur nähern Kenntniss,” etc., Jena, 1802,
B. II) Ritter made me observe that the piece of gold galvanized by
communication with the pile exerts at once the action of two metals, or
of one voltaic couple, and that the face which in the voltaic circuit
was next the negative pole became positive, and the face toward the
positive pole negative. Having discovered a way to galvanize metals,
as iron is rendered magnetic, and having found that the galvanized
metals always exhibit two poles as the magnetized needle does, Ritter
suspended a galvanized gold needle on a pivot, and perceived that it
had a certain dip and variation, or deflection, and that the angle of
deviation was always the same in all his experiments. It differed,
however, from that of the magnetic needle, and it was the positive pole
that always dipped.”
It can truly be said that the nearest approach to a solution of the
question as to the analogy between electric and magnetic forces, which
had remained unsettled since the time of Van Swinden (see A.D. 1784),
was given by Ritter, who announced “that a needle composed of silver
and zinc arranged itself in the magnetic meridian and was slightly
attracted and repelled by the poles of a magnet; that by placing a gold
coin in the voltaic circuit, he had succeeded in giving to it positive
and negative electric poles; that the polarity so communicated was
retained by the gold after it had been in contact with other metals,
and appeared therefore to partake of the nature of magnetism; that a
gold needle under similar circumstances acquired still more decided
magnetic properties; that a metallic wire, after being exposed to
the voltaic current, took a direction N.E. and S.W.” Dr. Roget gives
these same extracts in his article on “Electro-Magnetism,” and justly
remarks that Ritter’s speculations were of too crude a nature to
throw any distinct light on the true connection between magnetism and
electricity, nor was much notice taken of Ritter’s announcements, owing
to the vague manner in which they were made. No satisfactory results
were in fact obtained until Oersted (at A.D. 1820) made his famous
discovery which forms the basis of the science of electro-magnetism.
REFERENCES.--The “Encyclopædia Britannica” article relating to
the influence of magnetism on chemical action, for an account
of Ritter’s other experiments; also Faraday’s “Experimental
Researches,” No. 1033; Ritter’s “Physisch. Chem. Abhand.,”
etc., 3 vols., Leipzig, 1806; Poggendorff, Vol. II. p. 652;
Tyndall’s notes on Electric Polarization; Donovan’s “Essay on
the Origin, Progress and Present State of Galvanism,” Dublin,
1816; “Société Philomathique,” An. IV. p. 181; An. IX. p. 39;
An. XI. pp. 128, 197; An. XII. p. 145; _Bull. Soc. Phil._, Nos.
53, 76, 79; _Nuova Scelta d’Opus._, Vol. I. pp. 201, 334; _Bibl.
Brit._, XXXI; “Reichsanzeiger,” 1802, Bd. I, No. 66, and Bd.
II, No. 194; also F. L. Augustin’s “Versuch einer geschichte
...” 1803, p. 75; Gilbert’s _Annalen_, II, VI, VII, VIII, IX,
XIII, XV, XVI; Voigt’s _Magazin_, Vol. II. p. 356; Gehlen’s
_Journal_, Vol. III for 1804, and Vol. VI for 1806; “Denkschr.
d. Münch.,” 1808 and 1814; _Phil. Mag._, Vol. XXIII. chap.
ix. pp. 54, 55 (for experiments from Van Mons’ _Journal_, No.
17), Vols. XXIV. p. 186; XXV. p. 368; LVIII. p. 43; L. F. F.
Crell, “Chemische Annalen” for 1801; _Nicholson’s Journal_,
Vols. IV. p. 511; VI. p. 223; VII. p. 288, VIII. pp. 176, 184;
“Gottling’s Almanach” for 1801; Leithead, “Electricity,” p.
255; “Encycl. Metropolitana,” article “Galvanism,” Vol. IV. p.
206; “Biographie Générale,” Vol. XLII. p. 322; Larousse, “Dict.
Universel,” Vol. XIII. p. 1234; Pierre Sue, aîné, “Histoire du
Galvanisme,” Paris, An. X, 1802, Vol. I. pp. 226, 266; Vol. II.
pp. 112–119, 156; Joseph Izarn, “Manuel du Galvanisme,” Paris,
An. XII, 1804, pp. 84–87, 249, 255–261; Brugnatelli, “Notizie
... nell’ anno 1804,” Pavia, 1805, p. 16, also his _Annali di
chimica_, Vol. XXII. p. 1; _Journal de Physique_, Vol. LVII.
pp. 345, 406; _Annales de Chimie_, Vols. XLI. p. 208; LXIV.
pp. 64–80; _Jour. de Chim. de Van Mons_, No. 14, p. 212, for
the experiments of Van Marum and Oersted, made with Ritter’s
apparatus; Sturgeon’s “Scientific Researches,” Bury, 1850, pp.
7, 8, and Prof. Millin’s “Magazin Encyclopédique”; “Allgemeine
Deutsche Biographie,” Leipzig, 1875, Vol. XXVIII. pp. 675–678;
“Bibl. Britan.,” Vol. XXXI. 1806, p. 97, Vol. XXV. 1807, pp.
364–386 (Lettre de M. le Dr. Thouvenel).
=A.D. 1803.=--Basse (Frédéric Henri), of Hamel, makes one of the
earliest trials of the transmission of galvanism through water and
soil, the results of which appear in his work, “Galvanische Versuche,”
etc., published at Leipzig the year following.
Along the frozen water of the ditch or moat surrounding the town of
Hamel he suspended, on fir posts, 500 feet of wire, at a height of six
feet above the surface of the ice, then making two holes in the ice and
dipping into them the ends of the wire, in the circuit of which were
included a galvanic battery and a suitable electroscope, he found the
current circulating freely. Similar experiments were made in the Weser;
afterwards, with two wells, 21 feet deep and 200 feet apart; and,
lastly, across a meadow 3000 to 4000 feet wide. Whenever the ground
was dry it was only necessary to wet it in order to feel a shock sent
through an insulated wire from the distant battery. Erman, of Berlin,
in 1803, and Sömmering, of Munich, in 1811, performed like experiments,
the one in the water of the Havel, near Potsdam, and the other along
the river Isar.