berger, it was employed by Captain Kater as the foundation of a most convenient practical method of determining the length of the pendulum.—The interval which separated the discovery, by Dr. Black, of latent heat, from the beautiful and successful application of it to the steam engine, was comparatively short; but it required the efforts of two minds; and both were of the highest order.— The influence of electricity in producing decompositions, although of inestimable value as an instrument of discovery in chemical inquiries, can hardly be said to have been applied to the practical purposes of life, until the same powerful genius[1] which detected the principle, applied it, by a singular felicity of reasoning, to arrest the corrosion of the copper-sheathing of vessels. 'That admirably connected chain of reasoning, the truth of which is confirmed by its very failure as a remedy,[2]
- ↑ I am authorised in stating, that this was regarded by Laplace as the greatest of Sir Humphry Davy's discoveries.
- ↑ It did not fail in producing the effect foreseen by Sir H. Davy,—the preventing the corrosion of the copper; but it failed as a cure of the evil, by producing one of an opposite character; either by preserving too perfectly from decay the surface of the copper, or by rendering it negative, it allowed marine animals and vegetables to accumulate on its surface, and thus impede the progress of the vessel.
