On contact electricity of metals

Abstract

1. The experimental investigation described in this communication had as its primary object the elucidation and measurement of the variations of Volta contact electricity of a pair of conductors, due changes in the state of that portion of the surface of each conductor which was separated from the other conductor by an insulating medium . 2. The discovery of contact electricity of dry metals in air by Volta at the beginning of the present century, extended a quarter of a century later by Pfaff to dry varnished metals in other gases, has been confirmed by many subsequent experimenters. The reality of the electrostatic force in air near an interface between copper and zinc, inferred as an obvious consequence from it by Lord Kelvin, was experimentally demonstrated by him in 1861.