That each metal (or electrolyte), when
unequally heated, has to a certain extent an unlike class of motions
in its differently heated parts, and behaves in those parts somewhat
like two metals (or electrolytes), and those unlike motions are
enabled, through the intermediate conducting portion of the substance,
to render those parts electro-polar. That every different metal and
electrolyte has a different class of motions, and in consequence of
this, they also, by contact alone with each other at the same
temperature, become electro-polar. The molecular motion of each
different substance also increases at a different rate by rise of
temperature.
This theory is equally in agreement with the chemico-electric results.
In accordance with it, when in the case of a metal and an electrolyte,
the two classes of motions are sufficiently unlike, chemical corrosion
of the metal by the liquid takes place, and the voltaic current
originated by inherent molecular motion, under the condition of
contact, is maintained by the portions of motion lost by the metal and
liquid during the act of uniting together.
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