The Electricity of the Contact of Gases with Liquids

Abstract

SINCE the delivery of Helmholtz's famous Faraday Lecture, “the charge on the atom” has been assumed by physicists, notwithstanding the very serious objections urged by Maxwell against such a theoiy. A re-perusal of the latter, some eighteen months ago, excited me to make some experiments on the subject. It occurred to me that by allowing such solutions as potassic iodide and chlorine water to react in an insulated vessel some information might be obtained as to the equality or inequality of the atomic charges.