VII. On the electro-chemical polarity of gases

Abstract

The different effect of electricity upon gases and liquids has long been a subject of interest to physical inquirers. There are, as far as I am aware, no experiments which show any analogy in the electrization of gases to those effects now commonly comprehended under the term electrolysis. Whether gases at all conduct electricity, properly speaking, or whether its transmission is not always by the disruptive dis­charge, the discharge by convection, or something closely analogous, is perhaps a doubtful question; but I feel strongly convinced that gases do not conduct in any similar manner to metals or electrolytes. In a paper published in the year 1849, I have shown that hydrogen or atmospheric air intensely heated, showed no sign of conduction for voltaic electricity even when a battery of very high intensity was employed.