An account of some experiments, performed with a view to ascertain the most advantageous method of constructing a voltaic apparatus, for the purposes of chemical research

The object of the author is to determine how the greatest effect may be produced by the voltaic battery, with the least waste of power and expense. For this purpose he had one battery constructed of twenty pairs of plates of zinc and copper of large dimensions, each plate being four feet long and two feet wide. Each pair was connected together only at the top by a strap of lead, so that both sides of each plate were exposed to the action of the fluid in the trough. The trough was made entirely of wood, with wooden partitions, made water-tight by cement; and this battery when in action was charged with a mixture of three parts nitrous acid, with one of sulphuric diluted with three parts of water.