The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-12-05

TT O
many, the peculiar, the marvellous results thai
were TO flow flom the chance discovery Of the
fact That moist hog placed between two diff
iefent metals was kind Of electrical machine.
Among the Italians who caught at Gaivaurs
discovery, the most skilful and learned was Pro.
iesso Volta, of Como, who had been an ardent
electrician from his youth. Many of our read
elB have seen this year the colossal statue of
that great man, which adorns his native city on
the southern shore of the lake. The statue was
worlhily decreed, because the man who contri-
butes ever so little to a grand discovery in
science provided that little Is essential TO it 90
ranks among the greatest benefactors of his
species. And what did the admirable Volta dis
cover? Reducing the labors of his long lie to
his just clam TO Immortality consists IN this
he found out that the frog hal nothing to do
with the production Of electricity in Galvani's
experiment, but that wet card or rag would do
as well. This discovery was the central fact of
his scientific career of siXty-four years. II took
all of his familiar knowledge of electricity,
acquired in-twenty.seven years of entire devo-
tion to the study, to enable him 10 interpret
frog; and he spent the remaining thirty-seven
years OF his existence in varying the experiment
thus freed from that 'demd damp, moiot, un-
pleasant body.D 1t was q severe afllicton to the
followers of Galvani and 10 the University OF
Bologna to have their darling theory of the ner-
vous electricity so rudely yet so unansweraoly
retuted.. Il do not need your frog ~ exclaimed
the too impetHOus Volta. "Give me two metals
and moist rag, and 1 Will produce your animal
electricity. Your frog is nothing but moist
conductor, and in this respect is not as good as
wet rag" This was decisive fact, and it
senced all but few of the disciples of toe
dead GalVani
Volta was led to discard the frog by observing
that no electric results followed when the two
plates were of the same metal. Suspecting from
this that the frog was merely conductor lin
stead Of the generatorl of the electric fluid, he
tired the experiment with a wet card placed
between two pairs OF plates, and thus discovered
tlonE Alpa 1n aINA nNnln kss, klko.
geneous. But it cost thousands of experiments
to reach-this result, and ten years of ceaseless
thought and eXertion to arrive at the invention
Of the ''pile," which merely consists of many
pairs of Heterogeneous plates, each separated by
moist substance. The weight of so much metal
squeezed the wet cloth dry, and this led to var1-
Gus contrivances for keeping 1t wet, resulting at
last in the invention OF the familiar trough
battery" now employed in all telegraph offices
and manufactures OF electro anything Instead
of Galvani's frog, or Volta's wet rag, the con-
duCtor is a solution of sulphuric acid, which
Volta himself suggested and employed. The
negative electricity is conveyed to the earth by
a wire, and the positive is conducted from pair
to pair, increasing as it goes, until if the bat.
terry is large enough, 1t may have the force to
send message round the world. And the cur
rent is continuous. The galvanic battery is an
electrical machine that goes without turning
handle. BY the galvanic battery electricity is
made subservient TO man. Among other things,
it sends his messages faces his type with "copper"
baby's silver mug with shining gold.
The old methods of covering metals with q
plating OF silver were so difficult and laboFious,
that durable ware could never have been pro.
duced by them except at an expense which
would have defeated the object. In those slow
and costly ways plated articles were made as
late as the year 1910; and thus they might be
made at the present moment, if Sgnora Galvani
had been looking the other way when the stu
dent touched the frog with the knife. More
than fifty years elapsed before the chance dis
eoyery was made available IN n the art we are re
Galvani and Volta did not appear to add much
to the resources of man, though they excited
his Especial wonder.n Elderly readers can per-
haps remember the appalling accounts that
used to be published, forty years ago or more,
of the galvanizing of criminals after execu-
H0ts5 0R chemist In iS tad th at esof Glasgow votaic
"pile" of two hundred and seventy pairs of
plates npon the body of murderer. AS the
various parts OF the nervous system were sub
jected 10 the current the most startling results
followed. The whole body shuddered as with
cold; one of the legs nearly kicked an attendant
over; the others heaved, and the lungs inhaled
and exhaled. At one time, when all the power
of the instrument was exerted, we are told that
''every muscle of the countenance was simulta-
neously thrown into fearful action. Rage,
horror, despair, and anguish, and CHASTITY smiles
united their hideous expression on the MUIR
derers face, surprising tar the widest repre-.
sentations of O Fusseli or Kean. AT this period
several of the spectators were obliged to leave
the room from terror or sickness, and one gen.
teman tainted" The bodies Of horses, oxen,
and sheep were galvanized, with results the
most surprising. Five men were unable to hold
the leg OF a horse subjected to the action of
powerful battery.
So far as we know, nothing of much import
ance has yet been inferred from such expert
ments as these. Davy and Fataday, however,
and their pupils did not con6ne their attention
to these barren wonders. SIR Humphrey Davy
took the ''pilen as invented by Volta, in 1900,
and founded by its assistance what may be styled
a new science, and developed l. to the point
where 1t became available for the arts and utlll-
ties of man. The simple and easy process by
which silver and gold are decomposed, and then
deposited upon metallic surfaces, is only one of
many ways in which the galyanic battery minis
ters to our convenience and pleasure. III the
reader will step into mandatory OF plated
ware, he will see, in the plating room, a trough
containing liquid resembling tea as 1t comes
from the teapot. Avoiding scientific terms, we
may say that this liquid Is solution OF silver,
and contains about four ounces OF silver 10 o
gallon OF water: There are also thin plates OF
silver hanging along the sides OF the trough into
the liquid. The galvanic battery which is TO set
this apparatus in motion Is In q closet near by.
The vessels to be plated, after being thoroughly
cleaned and exactly weighed, are suspended In
the liquid by wire running along the top OF the
trough. When all is ready, the current OF cleo
tricty generated by the small battery in the
closet is made to pass through the trough, and
along all the metallic surfaces therein con-
tanned, When this has been done, the spectator
may lock with all his eyes, but he cannot per-
ceiVe that anything is going on. There is no
bubbliIg nor hZZing, nor any other noise or
motion. The long row OF vessels hang silently
at their wire, immersed in their tea, and noDody
appears to pay any attention to them. And so
they continue to hang for hours, for five or six
or seven hours If the design is to produce work
which will answer some other purpose than sell
inc All this time most wonderful aud mys-
= fo