On the results of a series of experiments on the decomposition of water by the galvanic battery : with a view to obtain a constant and brilliant lime light / by N.J. Callan.

  • Callan, N. J. (Nicholas Joseph), 1799-1864.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the results of a series of experiments on the decomposition of water by the galvanic battery : with a view to obtain a constant and brilliant lime light / by N.J. Callan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    tity of lead was about equal to that of tin, or from two to seven or eight times as great as that of tin; and from these experi- ments I infer that iron, coated with any of the above-mentioned alloys, is less oxidable and less liable to corrosion than lead or galvanized iron, the zinc coating of which, as every one knows, is rapidly dissolved by the acids, even when they are greatly diluted with water. Iron, then, coated with an alloy of lead and tin, in which the quantity of lead is nearly equal to, or exceeds that of tin, will answer as well as lead or galvanized iron for roofing, cisterns, baths, pipes, gutters, window-frames, telegraphic wires, for marine and various other purposes. A small quantity of zinc, mixed with the alloy with which the iron is coated, hardens the coating, but diminishes its power of resisting corro- sion. But the addition of a little antimony not only hardens the coating, but also makes it less oxidable and less liable to corrosive action. Iron, coated Avith the alloy of lead and tin, or of lead, tin and antimony, may answer better than lead for vitriol chambers. It may be sometimes used instead of copper for the sheathing of ships; and bolts and nails of coated iron may be sometimes employed instead of copper bolts and nails. It may also be used for some of the purposes for which enamelled iron or cast iron is employed, such as the enamelled cast-iron cisterns and pipes used in water-closets. At the last meeting of the British Association at Hull, Dr. Gladstone stated that the owners of iron-built ships object to sugar cargoes, because the saccharine juices that exude from the casks corrode the metal. If the casks or the ships were lined with thin sheet iron, coated Avith an alloy of lead and tin, containing two or three times as much lead as tin, it is highly probable that the corrosion of the ships would be prevented. I have left for a considerable time a small piece of an alloy of lead and tin, in which the quantity of lead was four or five times as great as that of tin, in a solution of sugar and common water; and the alloy came out as bright as Avhen it Avas put into the solution. The fifth result is a new mode of producing, by means of a small galvanic battery, a brilliant intermittent lime light. By means of a battery of tAvelve 4-inch cast-iron cells, or of four cells each 6 inches by 8, a small voltameter, such as I have described, and a good Hemming*s jet, a constant lime light, about a quarter of an inch in diameter, may be produced. If then the jet be attached to a stopcock, by which the gases are confined in the iron voltameter for fifty-five seconds in every minute, and are allowed to issue from the jet only for five seconds in each minute, twelve times as much of the gases must pass through the jet in these five seconds as Avould pass through it in the same time were the stopcock always open. Ilencc if the gases produced by the battery are ignited for five seconds in each