John Peter Gassiot to Faraday   3 January 18391

My dear Sir

Mr. Anderson will no doubt have informed you of our failure in obtaining a striking distance with my 320 pairs of the Constant Battery2. Mr. Wheatstone suggested that the failure might arise from the Cells not being insulated[.] Since then Mr Mason3 prepared 99 Cells which are insulated with great care on Glass well covered with Shellac Varnish - we also had an instrument prepared by Mr. Watkins with a micrometer screw - but we could nor succeed[.]

We were however fully compensated for our trouble by obtaining the following result - the entire Battery was afterwards arranged so as to become 9 distinct Batteries of 11 Cells each - the two Voltameters were used with small & large Electrodes. The action with each used separately was as follows[:]

diagram

Making a total of 874" - the mean power being 97".11[.] On connecting the 9 pos. into one Cup and 9 Neg into another with the small sized Electrodes we obtained a Cubic [In] in 21" with the large sized [electrodes] a Cubic In in 10" and 5 In in 52" with the combined power by calculation we ought to obtain the inch in 10".79 - we obtained it in 10".44.

The action of the different batteries (whatever may have been the cause) being so varied, I think that with Electrodes of requisite dimensions the Electrolytical effects of any number of the Constant Battery may be combined whatever may be the size of the Elements of which they are composed[.]

Were it the custom to canonize philosophers, and a vacancy could be found in the Calendar it ought certainly to be awarded my friend Daniell for the Constant Battery5 - the Experiments were continued from 4 o clock in the afternoon until 3 next morning & the battery was as in good action as the first hour.

I must not forget to tell you that Brayley is now the Secretary to the Elec Socy and I hope under his guidance some good to science may be ultimately obtained by our Exertions. I can only regret that I had not the pleasure of your acquaintance some years ago, however I can only now wish you and yours every happiness this world can afford, and that you may be spared a long life for the cultivation of that science which so many agree is yet only in its infancy[.]

Believe me | My Dear Sir | Very Sincerely yours | John P. Gassiot

P.S. I have sent Mr D an acct of the Experiments

Clapham Common | 3 Jan 1839

M. Faraday Esq | FRS &c &c &c

John Peter Gassiot (1797-1877, DSB). Wine merchant and electrician.
For this experiment see Gassiot (1840).
Thomas Mason. A maker of batteries (see Mason (1838)) and son of Thomas Mason, wollen draper of 70 High Holborn, POD.
For these experiments see Gassiot (1839).
Daniell (1836).

Bibliography

GASSIOT, John Peter (1839): “Account of Experiments with Voltameters, having Electrodes exposing different Surfaces”, Trans. Elec. Soc. Lond., 1: 107-10.

GASSIOT, John Peter (1840): “An account of Experiments made with the view of ascertaining the possibility of obtaining a Spark before the Circuit of the Voltaic Battery is completed”, Phil. Trans., 130: 183-92.

MASON, T. (1838): “On the Amalgamation of potassium by Voltaic Action”, Ann. Elec., 3: 13-14.

Please cite as “Faraday1128,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 28 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday1128