On a new and practical form of voltaic battery of the highest powers, in which potassium forms the positive element

The author succeeded in constructing a voltaic arrangement of some power by fixing a piece of potassium to the end of a copper wire, placed in a tube containing naphtha, and bringing it in contact with a small quantity of mercury, held by a layer of bladder closing the lower end of the tube, which was itself immersed in acidulated water immediately over a piece of platinum, and then completing the circuit by establishing a metallic contact between the copper wire and the platinum. This battery acted with energy on the galvanometer, and effected the decomposition of water. A series of twelve pairs of similar plates exhibited a sensible attraction of a slip of gold leaf. Thus it appears that the substance which possesses the highest chemical affinity manifests also the greatest power of electrical tension.