X. On Voltaic Combinations. In a letter addressed to Michael Faraday, D. C. L., F. R. S., Fullerian Prof. Chem. Royal Institution, Corr. Memb. Royal & Imp. Acadd. of Science, Paris, Petersburgh, &c. By J. Frederic Daniell, F. R. S., Prof. Chem. in King's College, London

Abstract

My Dear Faraday, You know how deep an interest I have taken in your “Experimental Researches in Electricity,” and how zealously I have availed myself of the opportunities, which you have ever kindly afforded me, of profiting by your oral explanation of such difficulties as occurred to me in the study of your last series of papers in the Philosophical Transactions. Having been early impressed with the conviction that the science of chemistry would date, from their publication, one of its great revolutions and eras of fresh impulse, I have been careful not only to store my own mind with the new facts and reasonings which they contain, but to impress them upon my pupils in my class room; and for this purpose I have been led to contrive some new apparatus and forms of experiments, by which the principles which you have promulgated have been verified, and, I think, in some instances demonstrated to advantage. In thus working in the mine which you have opened, you will be the last to be surprised if I should have moreover stumbled upon some threads of ore which you may have passed by, or temporarily abandoned, whilst following the main lode; and you will not be displeased that I venture to submit to your judgement whether there be enough of novelty or importance in the following observations to render them worthy of the attention of the Royal Society. One result, I know, will gratify you; namely, that amongst the almost innumerable tests to which I have exposed your great discovery of the definite chemical action of electricity , I have found no fact to militate against it; and you will the more rejoice should I succeed in proving to you that, under the direction of this fundamental principle, I have been led to the construction of a voltaic arrangement, which furnishes a constant current of electricity for any length of time which may be required; and have thus been enabled to remove one of the greatest difficulties which have hitherto obstructed those who have endeavoured to measure and compare the different voltaic phenomena, viz. the variableness of the action of the common batteries.