IMPROVEMENTS IN DECOMPOSING WATER BY ELECTRIC CURRENTS
Year: 1854

page_text: (This Invention received Provisional Protection, but notice to proceed with the
application for Letters Patent was not given within the time prescribed
by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edward Clarence Shepard at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 28th
February 1854.-A communication.
I, EDWARD CLARENCE SHEPARD, of Trafalgar Square, in the County, of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN DECOMPOSING WATER BY ELECTRIC CURRENTS" to be as follows:-
The Invention consists in the coupling of forces which result from the
electric or electro magnetic currents with the forces which result from the
affinity-or from the attraction of certain bodies for the oxygen, for the purpose
of favoring the parting of the elements of water. It is found that when an
electric current acts on water to which has been added an acid, a salt, or a
basis simply to render it a good conductor, the decomposition of the water
proceeds in the exact measure of the intensity of that current. If the anode
(the wire or rod conducting the electricity, and usually made of platina,) is an
oxydable body the hydrogen alone is obtained, and the oxygen is absorbed
by the anode; but in that case the action is due only to the intensity of the
When acidulated water is placed in contact with an oxydable metal,
the oxide of which can form a salt on combining with the acid existing in the
water, the decomposition of the water proceeds in the exact measure of the
affinities of the metal for the oxygen, and of the acid freed or parted for
the oxide formed.

page_text: In both the above cases the forces are unic and isolated. But if in water a
chemical preparation or combination is introduced, endowed with affinity for
the oxygen; if that combination is so dosed that its power of absorbing the
oxygen be equal to all the dose of oxygen contained in the water to be decom-
posed; if, lastly, an electric current is made to go through a mixture thus
prepared, the decomposition proceeds with a rapidity superior to that of the
two forces isolated in their action. In this case two energetic forces directed
in the same object render the liquid an excellent conductor, and mutually help
each other to overcome the cohesion of the elements of the water.
To obtain these results is the object of this Invention, and for this purpose
I use the following substances mixed with the water in the proportions
indicated by the tables of chemical equivalents:-Chlorites of baryta, of lime,
of cobalt, of copper, of iron, of potassa, of soda, of magnesia. Nitrites of
alumina, of ammonia, of baryta, of lime, of cobalt, of magnesia, of iron, of
lead, of soda, of potassa. Phosphites and hypophosphites with the same basis.
Sulphites, hyposulphites, hyposulphates of alumina, of ammonia, of baryta,
of bismuth, of lime, of chrome, of cobalt, of copper, of iron, of mercury, of
molybdenum, of lead, of potassa, of soda, of tin, of zinc. Salts of metallic
protoxides, the basis of which can reach a higher degree of oxydation, such as
the protoxide of iron, of manganese, or others, combined with a peroxydated
acid.
I mention those various materials in order the better to explain the principle
of my Invention, and to reserve to myself the use of them according as the one
or the other shall be nearer to the works in each country, or according as the
value of the produce remaining after the decomposition of the water shall be
capable of sale at a higher price for the arts.