Fig. 6.—Voltaic Pile.
Volta found that when two different metals were placed in contact in air, one became positively charged, and the other negatively. These charges however were extremely feeble, and in his endeavours to obtain stronger results he hit upon the idea of using a number of pairs of metals, and he constructed the apparatus known as the Voltaic pile, [Fig. 6]. This consists of a number of pairs of zinc and copper discs, each pair being separated from the next pair by a disc of cloth moistened with salt water. These are piled up and placed in a frame, as shown in the figure. One end of the pile thus terminates in a zinc disc, and the other in a copper disc, and as soon as the two are connected by a wire or other conductor a continuous current of electricity is produced. The cause of the electricity produced by the voltaic pile was the subject of a long and heated controversy. There were two main theories; that of Volta himself, which attributed the electricity to the mere contact of unlike metals, and the chemical theory, which ascribed it to chemical action. The chemical theory is now generally accepted, but certain points, into which we need not enter, are still in dispute.
There is a curious experiment which some of my readers may like to try. Place a copper coin on a sheet of zinc, and set an ordinary garden snail to crawl across the zinc towards the coin. As soon as the snail comes in contact with the copper it shrinks back, and shows every sign of having received a shock. One can well imagine that an enthusiastic gardener pestered with snails would watch this experiment with great glee.
Fig. 7.—Simple Voltaic Cell.
Volta soon found that it was not necessary to have his pairs of metals in actual metallic contact, and that better results were got by placing them in a vessel filled with dilute acid. [Fig. 7] is a diagram of a simple voltaic cell of this kind, and it shows the direction of the current when the zinc and the copper are connected by the wire. In order to get some idea of the reason why a current flows we must understand the meaning of electric potential. If water is poured into a vessel, a certain water pressure is produced. The amount of this pressure depends upon the level of the water, and this in turn depends upon the quantity of water and the capacity of the vessel, for a given quantity of water will reach a higher level in a small vessel than in a larger one. In the same way, if electricity is imparted to a conductor an electric pressure is produced, its amount depending upon the quantity of electricity and the electric capacity of the conductor, for conductors vary in capacity just as water vessels do.
This electric pressure is called “potential,” and electricity tends to flow from a conductor of higher to one of lower potential. When we say that a place is so many feet above or below sea-level we are using the level of the sea as a zero level, and in estimating electric potential we take the potential of the earth’s surface as zero; and we regard a positively electrified body as one at a positive or relatively high potential, and a negatively electrified body as one at a negative or relatively low potential. This may be clearer if we think of temperature and the thermometer. Temperatures above zero are positive and represented by the sign +, and those below zero are negative and represented by the sign -. Thus we assume that an electric current flows from a positive to a negative conductor.
PLATE I.
