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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    from it without the smallest risk of injury, and by which the full decomposing effect of a battery of a hundred or five hundred pairs, arranged in one series, may be produced without exhaust- ing the power of the battery more rapidly than if it contained only three or four cells. Thirdly, a new negative element far cheaper, far more durable, and one which may be made to act more powerfully than the platinized silver used in Smee’s bat- tery. Fourthly, a new mode of protecting iron against the action of the weather and of various corroding substances, so that iron thus protected may be used for all the purposes to which sheet lead and galvanized iron are applied. Fifthly, a method of producing a brilliant intermittent lime light by means of a small galvanic battery. Sixthly, a new mode of exhibiting the dissolving views by means of the lime light. Lastly, a new sine galvanometer, which is the only instrument yet made by which very powerful galvanic currents can be measured. The first result was a new apparatus for applying with perfect safety the mixed gases to the production of the oxyhydrogen flame and lime light. In my first experiments on the decom- position of water, I made use of a glass vessel containing dilute sulphuric acid and four parallel plates of platinized platina, each having a surface of about 14 square inches. The mouth of the vessel was stopped by a thick piece of wood, through which the wires from the electrodes passed. In this wood was cemented a tapped brass nut to which a stopcock and Hemming's jet might be screwed; the mouth of the vessel was made air-tight by cement. I soon found that with a glass vessel the use of Hemming's jet was unsafe. On one occasion, when I employed twenty 6-inch cells of our cast-iron battery, the Hemming's jet did not let out all the gases produced in the vessel; for after breaking the connexion between the battery and electrodes, the gases continued for some time to issue from the jet and kept up the lime light, although the battery had not worked for more than a minute or two. Had I allowed the battery to work nine or ten minutes, the gases would have been condensed within, and would have burst the vessel; I therefore saw that I must either get the gases separately, or devise some means by which the mixed gases might be safely inflamed, and might at the same time pass without much resistance from the glass vessel. I attempted both. To get the gases separate, I put a plate of porous earthenware between the electrodes so as to form two air-tight cells. 1 thus succeeded in obtaining the gases separate; but finding so much difficulty in making the cells air-tight, I gave up the idea of looking for the gases separately. In order to avoid dangerous explosions in igniting the mixed gases, and at the same time to allow them to pass freely to the jet, I sent them