He then attached one of them to the
positive conductor of an electric machine, and the other to the
gas-pipes of this building. These he called his 'discharging train.'
On turning the machine the electricity passed from paper to paper
through the string, which might be varied in length from a few
inches to seventy feet without changing the result. The first paper
was reddened, declaring the presence of sulphuric acid; the second
was browned, declaring the presence of the alkali soda.
The dissolved salt, therefore, arranged in this fashion, was decomposed
by the machine, exactly as it would have been by the voltaic
current. When instead of using the positive conductor he used the
negative, the positions of the acid and alkali were reversed.
Thus he satisfied himself that chemical decomposition by the machine
is obedient to the laws which rule decomposition by the pile.
And now he gradually abolishes those so-called poles, to the
attraction of which electric decomposition had been ascribed.
He connected a piece of turmeric paper moistened with the sulphate
of soda with the positive conductor of his machine; then he placed a
metallic point in connection with his discharging train opposite the
moist paper, so that the electricity should discharge through the
air towards the point. The turning of the machine caused the
corners of the piece of turmeric paper opposite to the point to turn
brown, thus declaring the presence of alkali. He changed the
turmeric for litmus paper, and placed it, not in connection with his
conductor, but with his discharging train, a metallic point
connected with the conductor being fixed at a couple of inches from
the paper; on turning the machine, acid was liberated at the edges
and corners of the litmus.
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