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
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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![only 64°. Hence more electricity passed from the two rows of six each through the fluid, than from 12 cells through the wire. Now it is well known, that when a current of electricity passes from one end of a battery to the other through a conductor in which it meets no resistance, the same quantity will pass in a given time between the ends of the battery, whether it consist of a single pair, or of a hundred or of a thousand circles, or of any number whatever. Hence more electricity will pass in any time through a solution of carbonate of soda from 12 cells arranged in two rows of six each, than will pass in the same time through a wire or fluid from a thousand, or any number of cells of the same size. Therefore whether Mr. Faraday’s law hold for power- ful currents of great intensity, or whether the conclusion drawn from my experiments be just, 12 cells, arranged in two rows of six each, will produce more decomposition in a given time than will be produced by a thousand, or any number of cells acting in one series. I have found, in the same way, that 8 cells, in two rows of four each, will produce as much, or nearly as much, of the mixed gases in a given time as any number acting in one series. Hence, with the common voltameter, a battery of 500 cast-iron cells, arranged in rows of four, will produce more than fifty times as much of the mixed gases as it will produce when all the cells are arranged in one series. Besides, when the cells are arranged in rows of four, the battery with a given charge will act about twice as long as when all act in one series; for in the latter case about twice as much electricity passes constantly through each cell as in the former, and consequently the power of the battery is exhausted about twice as soon. Hence, on the whole, with the common voltameter, a battery of 500 cast-iron cells arranged in one series will not produce the hundredth part of its full decomposing effect; but with the voltameter I have described, it will, as I have shown, produce its full effect. If a battery of 4 cast-iron cells, and another of 1000 or of any number of cells of the same size be similarly charged, the former will, before its power is exhausted, produce as much of the mixed gases as the latter; because the former will produce in each mi- nute as [half as much as?] the latter,and it will work twice as long. I will here mention one of the experiments from which I in- ferred, that in a voltameter for a battery of a large number of cells arranged in one series, the number of decomposing cells should be about one-fourth of the number of cells in the battery. When the current was sent from 12 cells in series, through 4 decomposing cells and through the coil of the galvanometer, the deflection was a little less than that which was produced by the current from 3 cells when it passed through one decom- posing cell and the coil. The difference arose from the imper- fect insulation of the cast-iron cells. But when the current was](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22435128_0022.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
