Page:On the various forces of nature and their relations to each other.djvu/95

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COHESION—CHEMICAL AFFINITY.
91

ignite the gas. It was therefore recharged, when the explosion took place in the desired manner.] How beautifully we get our results when we are right in our proceedings!—it is not that Nature is wrong when we make a mistake. Now, I will lay this vessel (G) down by my right hand, and you can examine it by and by: there is not very much water flowing down, but there is quite sufficient for you to see.

Another wonderful thing about this mode of changing the condition of the water is this—that we are able to get the separate parts of which it is composed, at a distance the one from the other, and to examine them, and see what they are like, and how many of them there are; and for this purpose I have here some more water in a slightly different apparatus to the former one (fig. 25), and if I place this in connection with the wires of the battery (at A B), I shall get a similar decomposition of the water at the two platinum plates. Now, I will put this little tube (O) over there, and that will collect the gas together that comes from this side (A), and this tube (H) will collect the gas