Calling Dr. Whewell to
his aid in 1833, he endeavoured to displace by others all terms
tainted by a foregone conclusion. His paper on Electro-chemical
Decomposition, received by the Royal Society on January 9, 1834,
opens with the proposal of a new terminology. He would avoid the
word 'current' if he could.[2] He does abandon the word 'poles' as
applied to the ends of a decomposing cell, because it suggests the
idea of attraction, substituting for it the perfectly natural term
Electrodes. He applied the term Electrolyte to every substance
which can be decomposed by the current, and the act of decomposition
he called Electrolysis. All these terms have become current in
science. He called the positive electrode the Anode, and the
negative one the Cathode, but these terms, though frequently used,
have not enjoyed the same currency as the others. The terms Anion
and Cation, which he applied to the constituents of the decomposed
electrolyte, and the term Ion, which included both anions and
cations, are still less frequently employed.
Faraday now passes from terminology to research; he sees the
necessity of quantitative determinations, and seeks to supply
himself with a measure of voltaic electricity. This he finds in the
quantity of water decomposed by the current. He tests this measure
in all possible ways, to assure himself that no error can arise from
its employment. He places in the course of one and the same current
a series of cells with electrodes of different sizes, some of them
plates of platinum, others merely platinum wires, and collects the
gas liberated on each distinct pair of electrodes.
Pages:
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68