937.  As the opposition of electro-motive pairs of plates produces results other than those due to the mere difference of their independent actions (1011. 1045.), I devised another form of apparatus, in which the action of acid and alkali might be more directly compared.  A cylindrical glass cup, about two inches deep within, an inch in internal diameter, and at least a quarter of an inch in thickness, was cut down the middle into halves, fig. 81.  A broad brass ring, larger in diameter than the cup, was supplied with a screw at one side; so that when the two halves of the cup were within the ring, and the screw was made to press tightly against the glass, the cup held any fluid put into it.  Bibulous paper of different degrees of permeability was then cut into pieces of such a size as to be easily introduced between the loosened halves of the cup, and served when the latter were tightened again to form a porous division down the middle of the cup, sufficient to keep any two fluids on opposite sides of the paper from mingling, except very slowly, and yet allowing them to act freely as one electrolyte.  The two spaces thus produced I will call the cells A and B, fig. 82.  This instrument I have found of most general application in the investigation of the relation of fluids and metals amongst themselves and to each other.  By combining its use with that of the galvanometer, it is easy to ascertain the relation of one metal with two fluids, or of two metals with one fluid, or of two metals and two fluids upon each other.

938.  Dilute sulphuric acid, sp. gr. 1.25, was put into the cell A, and a strong solution of caustic potassa into the cell B; they mingled slowly through the paper, and at last a thick crust of sulphate of potassa formed on the side of the paper next to the alkali.  A plate of clean platina was put into each cell and connected with a delicate galvanometer, but no electric current could be observed.  Hence the contact of acid with one platina plate, and alkali with the other, was unable to produce a current; nor was the combination of the acid with the alkali more effectual (925.).

939.  When one of the platina plates was removed and a zinc plate substituted, either amalgamated or not, a strong electric current was produced.  But, whether the zinc were in the acid whilst the platina was in the alkali, or whether the reverse order were chosen, the electric current was always from the zinc through the electrolyte to the platina, and back through the galvanometer to the zinc, the current seeming to be strongest when the zinc was in the alkali and the platina in the acid.

940.  In these experiments, therefore, the acid seems to have no power over the alkali, but to be rather inferior to it in force.  Hence there is no reason to suppose that the combination of the oxide formed with the acid around it has any direct influence in producing the electricity evolved, the whole of which appears to be due to the oxidation of the metal (919.).