Unpublished paper, 'On a new and practical form of voltaic battery of the highest powers, in which potassium forms the positive element' by John Goodman

Description

Goodman explains how he succeeded in constructing a voltaic arrangement of some power by fixing a piece of potassium to the end of a copper wire placed in a tube containing naphtha, and bringing it in contact with a small quantity of mercury, held by a layer of bladder closing the lower end of the tube, which was itself immersed in acidulated water immediately over a piece of platinum, and then completing the circuit by establishing a metallic contact between the copper wire and the platinum. This battery acted with energy on the galvanometer, and effected the decomposition of water. Goodman concludes that the substance which possesses the highest chemical affinity manifests also the greatest power of electrical tension. Includes a letter, dated 18 January 1847, in which Goodman relays the results of his tests on the potassium battery.

Subject: Physics / Electricity

Received 2 November 1846 / 5 November 1846. Communicated by Samuel Hunter Christie.

Written by Goodman at Broughton Lane, Manchester [England].

Whilst the Royal Society declined to publish this paper in full, an abstract of the paper was published in volume 5 of Abstracts of the Papers Printed in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London [later Proceedings of the Royal Society] as 'On a new and practical form of voltaic battery of the highest powers, in which potassium forms the positive element'.

Reference number

AP/29/4

Earliest possible date

1846-1847

Physical description

Ink on paper

Page extent

18 pages

Format

Manuscript