FARADAY, MICHAEL.. - ELECTRO-CHEMICAL RECOMBINATION.

Experimental Researches in Electricity. - Sixth Series. § 12. On the power of Metals and other Solids to induce the Combination of Gaseous Bodies. (Sections 564-660). Recieved November 30, 1833, - Read January 11, 1834.

(London, Richard Taylor, 1834). 4to. No wrappers as extracted from "Philosophical Transactions" 1834 - Part I. Pp. 55-76 a. 1 engraved plate.

First appearance of a historical paper in chemistry and physiscs in which Faraday detects a new recombination-effect in electrolysis.

"In the course of his experimental investigations of a general and importent law of electro-chemical action, which required the accurate measurement of thegases evolved during the decomposition of water and other substances, the author was lead to the detection of a curious effect, which had never been previously noticed, and of which the knowledge, had he before possessed it, would have prevented many of the errors and inconsistencies occurring in the conclusions he at first deduced from his earlier experiments. The phenomena observed was the gradual recombination of elements which had been previously separated from each other by voltaic action. This happened when, after water had been decomposed by voltaic electricity, the mixed gases resulting from such decomposition were left in contact with the platina wires or plates, which had acted as poles; for under these circumstances they gradually diminished in vo.umes, water was reprioduced, and at lust the whole of the gases disappeared."(Abstract) - Faraday explains the causes of this recombination.

From 1831 to 1852 Michael Faraday published his "Experimental Researches in Electricity" in The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. These papers contain not only an impressive series of experimental discoveries, but also a collection of heterodox theoretical concepts on the nature of these phenomena expressed in terms of lines of forces and fields. He published 30 papers in all under this general title.They represents Faraday's most importent work, are classics in both chemistry and physics and are the experimental foundations for Maxwell's electro-magnetic theory of light, using Faraday's concepts of lines of force or tubes of magnetic and electrical forces. His many experiments on the effects of electricity and magnetism presented in these papers lead to the fundamental discoveries of 'induced electricity' (the Farday current), the electronic state of matter, the identity of electricity from different sources, equivalents in electro-chemical decomposition, electrostatic induction, hydro-electricity, diamagnetism, relation of gravity to electricity, atmospheric magnetism and many other.

"Among experimental philosophers Faraday holds by universal consent the foremost place. The memoirs in which his discoveries are enshrined will never ceaseto be read with admiration and delight; and future generations will preserve with an affection not less enduring the personal records and familiar letters, which recall the memory of his humble and unselfish spirit."(Edmund Whittaker in A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity).

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