It was in the year following, 1805, that Wilhelm Behrends, of Frankfort, constructed his dry pile consisting of eighty pairs of discs of copper, zinc and gilt paper (De la Rive, “Treatise on Electricity,” Vol. II. p. 852).
The investigations of Maréchaux, De Luc, Zamboni and others in the same line will appear in due course.
References.—Young’s “Lectures,” London, 1807, Vol. II. p. 430, and Nicholson’s Journal, Vol. VII. pp. 303 and 305, Becquerel, Paris, 1851, p. 34; Sturgeon’s “Lectures on Galvanism,” p. 73; Sturgeon’s Annals of Electricity, Vol. VIII. pp. 378, etc.; Journal de Chimie de Van Mons, No. 11, p. 190, and also No. 12, p. 300, for Bouvier de Jodoigne’s experiments; “Catalogue Scientific Papers of the Royal Society,” Vol. II. p. 432; Gilbert, XIX. pp. 355–360, and Wilkinson’s denial of the effectiveness of Dyckhoff’s pile, in Nicholson’s Journal, Vol. VIII. p. 1.
A.D. 1804.—Gay-Lussac (Joseph Louis), one of the most prominent of modern scientists, who was for a time assistant to Berthollet, makes, in Paris, two ascents in a balloon, at heights varying between 12,000 and 23,623 feet, for the purpose of carrying out extensive observations upon terrestrial magnetism. The latter are recorded at length in the Journal de Physique, Vol. LIX, and are alluded to in the articles “Aeronautics” and “Meteorology” of the “Encycl. Brit.,” likewise at Biot, A.D. 1803, and in paragraphs 2961 and 2962 of Faraday’s “Experimental Researches in Electricity,” while at p. 193, Vol. XXI of the Phil. Mag. will be found the account of a very interesting aerial voyage made during January of the same year (1804) by M. Sacharof, of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.
In conjunction with Louis Jacques Thénard (alluded to at Fourcroy, A.D. 1801), Gay-Lussac communicates to the Annales de Chimie for 1810 (Vol. LXXIII. p. 197, etc.), a paper relative to their “preparation of an ammoniacal amalgam through the agency of the voltaic pile” which had been read at the “Institut National” during the month of September 1809, and which is also alluded to at pp. 250, etc., of the Annales de Chimie, Vol. LXXVIII for 1811. Their united “physico-chemical researches on the voltaic pile ...” are reviewed at pp. 243, etc., of the last-named volume and are likewise alluded to at p. 36 of Vol. LXXIX for the same year. The largest of the many piles they employed in their several experiments consisted of 600 pairs with a square surface of 1800 feet (Figuier, “Exposition et Histoire ...” 1857, Vol. IV. pp. 387 and 433; Journal des Mines, Vol. XXX. pp. 5–56; Schweigger’s Journal, Vol. II. pp. 409–423).
At pp. 76, etc., of the second volume of the Annales de Chimie et de Physique for the month of May 1816, are to be found the observations of Gay-Lussac on dry voltaic piles, especially upon those of Desormes et Hachette, De Luc and Zamboni. He remarks that the last named does not appear to have so constructed his pile as to enable the oscillations of the needle to indicate an exact measure of time (Schweigger’s Journal für Chemie, Vol. XV. pp. 113, 130–132), but that the so-called electric clocks of M. Ramis, of Munich, and of M. Streizig, of Verona, readily pointed the hours, minutes and seconds (Schweigger’s Journal, Vol. XIII. p. 379; Ronalds’ “Catalogue” for notices of his own as well as of the clocks of Ramis and of Streizig).
The investigations of Gay-Lussac and Humboldt, relative to the magnetic intensity and dip or inclination, throughout France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, will be found recorded in the first volume of Mém. d’Arcueil, 1807, while at p. 284, Vol. X, and at pp. 305–309 of the Annales de Chimie are observations of Gay-Lussac and Arago, and at p. 509 of the fourth volume of Figuier’s “Exposition et Histoire,” etc., Paris, 1857, appears an extended account of the special report upon lightning rods, which Gay-Lussac was authorized by the Natural Philosophy Division of the French Academy of Sciences to prepare during the year 1823, and the outcome of which appears in the Comptes Rendus des Séances ... Vol. XXXIX. p. 1142.
References.—Faraday’s “Experimental Researches,” 1839, Vol. I. p. 217, note, as well as paragraph No. 741 “Recherches Physicochimiques,” p. 12, and J. Farrar’s “Elem. of Elec. Mag.,” 1826, pp. 150–152; while for Gay-Lussac and Thénard’s repetition of Sir Humphry Davy’s experiments on the decomposition of the alkalies, see Phil. Mag., Vol. XXXII. p. 88; “Instruction sur les parat ...” for Gay-Lussac, Fresnel, Lefevre, Gineau and others, Paris, 1824, and for Gay-Lussac and Pouillet, Paris, 1855. Other reports on lightning rods not hitherto specially mentioned are: J. Langenbucher, 1783; Beyer, 1806–1809; P. Beltrami, 1823; Bourges, at Bordeaux, 1837; Boudin, 1855, and J. Bushee, Amer. Assoc., 1868. The observations of Thénard and Dulong are recorded at paragraphs 609, 612, 636, 637 of Faraday’s “Experimental Researches,” as well as at Vols. XXIII. p. 440; XXIV. pp. 380, 383 and 386 of the Annales de Chimie, and those of Thénard, Fourcroy, and Vauquelin will be found in the Mém. des Soc. Sav. et Lit., Vol. I. p. 204. See “Royal Society Catalogue of Sc. Papers,” Vol. II. pp. 800–807; Vol. V. pp. 944–948; Vol. VI. p. 666; Vol. VII. p. 748; Vol. VIII. p. 1072; “Discours de M. Becquerel ...” Inst. Nat. Acad. des Sciences; Phil. Mag., Vols. XX. p. 83; XXI. p. 220; Sci. Am. Supp., p. 11794; Edin. Magazine, Vol. V. p. 471; Annales de Chimie et Physique for 1818, Vol. VIII. pp. 68, 161, 163; the eighth “Britannica,” Vol. VIII. pp. 532, 539, 573 for Gay-Lussac’s additional experiments; the ninth “Britannica,” Vol. X. pp. 122, etc.; also Report Brit. Asso., London, 1838, pp. 7–8, for the magnetic observations of Gay-Lussac and Humboldt on the European Continent, likewise Sir Humphry Davy “Bakerian Lectures,” London, 1840, pp. 134–137; Humboldt, at A.D. 1799, and Cruikshanks, at A.D. 1800. For a description of the Volta eudiometer invented by Gay-Lussac, see Ann. de Ch. et Phys., Vol. IV. p. 188, also Dr. Hare in Silliman’s Journal, Vol. II. p. 312, and for the “Memoir of Louis Jacques Thénard,” by M. Flourens, see the “Report of the Smithsonian Institution” for 1862, pp. 372–383; “Journal des Savants” for Dec. 1850; Meyer’s “Konversations-Lexikon” Leipzig und Wien, 1894, Vol. VII. pp. 140–141; “Dict. Général de Biog. et d’Histoire,” Paris, 2nd ed., pp. 1218–1219.
A.D. 1805.—Mr. Joseph Davis submits to the London Society of Arts an improvement upon the telegraph of Lord George Murray (A.D. 1795), consisting of the addition of a seventh shutter, which, instead of being poised on a horizontal axis, is made to slide up and down in grooves in the centre of the framework; so that it may either range with the six shutters or, if not required at all, may descend into a space provided for it in the roof of the Observatory. By this simple device the power of the apparatus is quadrupled, it being made capable of indicating in all 252 changes.
The night signals are given by a coloured lamp mounted in the centre of the seventh or sliding shutter and by six white lights fastened to the outside of the frame, to produce, through their display or concealment by slides, the same signals as, under ordinary circumstances, are given by the opening and closing of the shutters.