The stream of positive electricity flows from the zinc to the copper. The construction and power of the Voltaic battery have been much improved of late years, but the most valuable improvement is the constant battery of Professor Daniell. In all batteries of the ordinary construction, the power, however energetic at first, rapidly diminishes, and ultimately becomes very feeble. Professor Daniell found that this diminution of power is occasioned by the adhesion of the evolved hydrogen to the surface of the copper, and by the precipitation of the sulphate formed by the action of the acid on the zinc. He prevents the latter by interposing between the copper and the zinc, in the cell containing the liquid, a membrane which, without impeding the electric current, prevents the transfer of the salt; and the former, by placing between the copper and the membrane solution of sulphate of copper, which being reduced by the hydrogen prevents the adhesion of this gas to the metallic surface. Each element of the battery consists of a hollow cylinder of copper, in the axis of which is placed a cylindrical rod of zinc; between the zinc and the copper a membranous bag is placed, which divides the cell into two portions, the inner of which is filled with dilute acid, and the one nearer the copper is supplied with crystals of the sulphate of that metal. The battery consists of several of these elementary cells connected together by metallic wires, the zinc rod of one with the copper cylinder of that next to it. The zinc rods are amalgamated, so that local action, which, in ordinary cases, is so destructive of the zinc, does not take place, and no chemical action is manifested unless the circuit be completed. The rods are easily detached, and others substituted for them when worn out. This battery, which possesses considerable power, and is constant in its effects for a very long time, is greatly superior to all former arrangements, either as an instrument of research, or for exhibiting the ordinary phenomena of Voltaic electricity. A battery charged with water alone, instead of acid, is constant in its action, but the quantity of electricity it develops is comparatively very small. Mr. Cross, of Broomfield in Somersetshire, kept a battery of this kind in full force during twelve months. M. Becquerel had invented an instrument for comparing the intensities of the different kinds of electricity by means of weights; but, as it is impossible to make the comparison with Voltaic electricity produced by the ordinary batteries, on account of the perpetual variation to which the intensity of the current is liable, he has constructed a battery which affords a continued stream of electricity of uniform power, but it is also of very feeble force. The current is produced by the chemical combination of an acid with an alkali.