[86] Art. 661.
[87] 963.
[88] 917.
[89] Art. 950.
[90] 990.
[91] 1114.
By those to whom this conception has been conveyed, I venture to trust that I shall be held to have given a faithful account of this important event in the history of science. We may, before we quit the subject, notice one or two of the remarkable subordinate features of Faraday’s discoveries.
Sect. 3.—Consequences of Faraday’s Discoveries.
Faraday’s volta-electrometer, in conjunction with the method he had already employed, as we have seen, for the comparison of voltaic and common electricity, enabled him to measure the actual quantity of electricity which is exhibited, in given cases, in the form of chemical affinity. His results appeared in numbers of that enormous amount which so often comes before us in the expression of natural laws. One grain of water[92] will require for its decomposition as much electricity as would make a powerful flash of lightning. By further calculation, he finds this quantity to be not less than 800,000 charges of his Leyden battery;[93] and this is, by his theory of the identity of the combining with the decomposing force, the quantity of electricity [303] which is naturally associated with the elements of the grain of water, endowing them with their mutual affinity.
[92] 853.