XLIV.—On a new form of constant battery

Abstract

ALTHOUGH there are several voltaic batteries which possess the esseptial quality of continuous action, yet when a very large number of elements is required, it is found that they are all in some respects inconvenient. For example, it is very troublesome to charge a battery of several hundred elements, in which two liquids and a porous cell are required; moreover, diffusion of the two liquids eventually takes place, and produces a great amount of local action whenever the battery is left for a long time with the electrodes disconnected. We believe, therefore, that the instrument which we herein describe will be foiind useful t o the chemist and the physicist as a ready source of dynamic electricity always a t hand, and that, especially where from a few hundreds to several thousand elements are requisite, it will be found t o be valuable, handy, and compact. In its construction no porous cell is needed, and the electrolyte is solid and very nearly insoluble, so that practically the electro-positive metal is scarcely attacked, even when the elements are left immersed with the electrodes disconnected for several weeks. We may state that this iristrurnent was designed for the express * A few of the values for f-a were reduced to differences in temperature, the calculations being founded upon the ahsolute determinations of the tension of acetate, in series I. ; the results, which I give only as rough approximations, were us follows. The temperatures of equal vapour-tensions are respectively :