Page:A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism - Volume 1.djvu/335

Let the ends of the broken circuit be $A$ and $B$, and let $A$ be the anode and $B$ the cathode. Let an insulated ball be made to touch $A$ and $B$ alternately, it will carry from $A$ to $B$ a certain measurable quantity of electricity at each journey. This quantity may be measured by an electrometer, or it may be calculated by multiplying the electromotive force of the circuit by the electrostatic capacity of the ball. Electricity is thus carried from $A$ to $B$ on the insulated ball by a process which may be called Convection. At the same time electrolysis goes on in the voltameter and in the cells of the battery, and the amount of electrolysis in each cell may be compared with the amount of electricity carried across by the insulated ball. The quantity of a substance which is electrolysed by one unit of electricity is called an Electrochemical equivalent of that substance.

This experiment would be an extremely tedious and troublesome one if conducted in this way with a ball of ordinary magnitude and a manageable battery, for an enormous number of journeys would have to be made before an appreciable quantity of the electrolyte was decomposed. The experiment must therefore be considered as a mere illustration, the actual measurements of electrochemical equivalents being conducted in a different way. But the experiment may be considered as an illustration of the process of electrolysis itself, for if we regard electrolytic conduction as a species of convection in which an electrochemical equivalent of the anion travels with negative electricity in the direction of the anode, while an equivalent of the cation travels with positive electricity in the direction of the cathode, the whole amount of transfer of electricity being one unit, we shall have an idea of the process of electrolysis, which, so far as I know, is not inconsistent with known facts, though, on account of our ignorance of the nature of electricity and of chemical compounds, it may be a very imperfect representation of what really takes place.

Magnetic Action of the Current.

239.] Oersted discovered that a magnet placed near a straight electric current tends to place itself at right angles to the plane passing through the magnet and the current. See Art. 475.

If a man were to place his body in the line of the current so that the current from copper through the wire to zinc should flow from his head to his feet, and if he were to direct his face towards the centre of the magnet, then that end of the magnet which tends