A copper wire passes down to the bottom of the cell and makes connection with the mercury; this wire is covered with gutta-percha, except where immersed in the mercury. The pores of the carbon plates are filled with paraffin wax. This battery was first employed for the purpose of utilizing waste solution from bichromate batteries, a great quantity of which is thrown away before having been completely exhausted. This waste is unavoidable, in consequence of the impossibility of permitting such batteries, when employed for telegraphic purposes, to run until complete exhaustion or reduction of the solutions has been effected; therefore some valuable chemicals have to be sacrificed to insure constancy in working. The fragments of zinc in this cell were also the remains of amalgamated zinc plates from the bichromate batteries, and the mercury which is employed for securing good metallic connection is soon augmented by that remaining after the dissolution of the zinc. It will therefore be seen that not only the solution, but also the zinc and mercury remnants of bichromate batteries are utilized, and at the same time a considerable quantity of electricity is generated.

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