Abstract
A SUPPLY of dynamic electricity is almost as requisite now for the lecture table as the supply of gas or water. The decomposition of water and various other liquids, the decomposition of certain gases in Hoffmann's U tube, with the aid of Rhumkorff's coil, and the physical test afforded by the passage of electricity through vacua containing traces of different gases, are most constant lecture experiments. And no wonder: the brilliant purple light afforded by the passage of electricity through a nitrogen vacuum, is, perhaps, the best and most reliable, if, indeed, it be not the only, test for nitrogen gas; while the decomposition of water gas, of ammonia, and of marsh gas, are experiments of the utmost importance in modern Chemistry. Hitherto the chief drawback has been the voltaic battery; the setting up of the battery before the lecture, the taking it to pieces afterwards, the constant amalgamation of the zinc plates, the consumption of zinc and acid, the fumes—in a word, the general inconvenience inseparable from any form of voltaic battery, but reduced to a minimum in Sir William Thomson's constant gravitation battery. The former of these inconveniences are more apparent, when, as is often the case, the battery is only required for five minutes during the whole lecture.
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RODWELL, G. Nöe's Thermo-Electric Battery . Nature 6, 85 (1872). https://doi.org/10.1038/006085a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/006085a0