Experiments and observations, made with the view of ascertaining the nature of the gaz produced by passing electric discharges through water / [George Pearson].

George Pearson

Date:: [1797]

Credit: Experiments and observations, made with the view of ascertaining the nature of the gaz produced by passing electric discharges through water / [George Pearson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$EXPERIMENTS, ire. Read before the ROYAL SOCIETY, February 2, 1797* » § !• In the Journal de Physique for the month of November, 1789, were published the very curious and interesting experiments of Messrs. Paets van Tro^stwyk and Dei man ; which were made with the assistance of Mr. Cuthbertson ; on the appa- rent decomposition of water by electric discharges. The apparatus employed was a tube 12 inches in length, and its bore was ± of an inch in diameter, English measure; which was hermetically sealed at one end, but before it was sealed, 1 \ inch of gold or platina wire was introduced within the tube, and fixed into the closed end by melting the glass around the extremity of the wire. Another wire of platina, or of gold with platina wire at its extremity, immersed in quicksilver, was introduced at the open end of the tube, which extended to within ■§• of an inch of the upper wire, which, as was just said, was fixed into the sealed extremity. The tube was filled with distilled water, which had been freed from air by means of Cuthbertson’s last improved air pump, of the greatest rarefying power. As the open end of the tube was immersed in quicksilver, a little common air was B$