A D V E N T U R E S in C Y B E R S O U N DJohann Wilhelm Ritter : 1776 - 1810
Johann Wilhelm Ritter who supported Galvani's belief that electrical (galvanic) phenomena may occur within an animal's body was himself an early pioneer in galvanism in Germany. While galvanic current was being debated and questioned as an electrical phenomenon, Ritter was proving it experimentally. He learned that if he attached a piece of gold leaf to each end of two wires connected to a voltaic pile the leaves would attract each other when brought close to each other. When the leaves contacted each other, the electrical circuit closed. (1) Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society of London, published Volta's letter in the summer of 1800 after showing it to Carlisle in April who then along with Nicholson were first to decompose water with the electrical pile on 2 May 1800. Nicholson then published a comprehensive version of their experiment in the Journal of Natural Philosophy (4:179-187), 1800. The German version of Anthony Carlisle's and William Nicholson's experiment was also published in 1800 in Annalen der Physik 6:340-359. Ritter learned about Volta's pile from one of the publications, and then performed and improved upon the Carlisle and Nichcolson experiment by 17 September 1800. He published his findings about the Volta pile in early 1801 (Jan-May). He even described the extent that the galvanic reaction was possible by a single cell rather than from an entire column of cells as Carlisle and Nicholson had done. (2) Ritter found a convenient manner in 1800 to collect hydrogen and oxygen separately by electrolysis, thus improving on the experiments of Carlisle and Nicholson. The perplexing question among scientists at the time was how a ponderable (weighable) continuum could allow another ponderable the ease of movement through the continuum. That is, how could oxygen and hydrogen move through water and appear on opposite electrodes? Ritter answered the perplexing question by merely stating that water is transformed to hydrogen at the negative electrode while it is transformed into oxygen at the positive electrode by electricity. He further reasoned that water is not decomposed by electricity, but is galvanized into hydrogen and oxygen which is a compound consisting of water and negative and positive electricity. Historians have ever since tried to determine without success why Ritter made these simple statements involving water and electricity when data from his own experiments never warranted them. The statements were also made when his science colleagues opposed the ideas that he developed. (2) The basic concept of electrolysis and electroplating were discovered by Ritter at the same time or in some cases earlier than Carlisle and Nicholson's, Cruickanks's, or Davy's experiments. In 1800, Ritter observed that he could get metal to attach to copper which was the first electroplating attempt. He also observed the amount of metal deposited and the amount of oxygen produced during an electrolytic process that depended on the distance between the electrodes. He learned that the closer the electrodes, the stronger the effects. (2) In 1801, while using a pile composed of 100 cells in series, he noticed that muscle responded differently if he altered the rate of the stimulus amplitude. When he increased the current slowly no contraction occurred, but if he increased the stimulus amplitude quickly the muscle contracted. He thus concluded that stimulus amplitude had to increase quickly to contract muscle. (3) The method of increasing or decreasing electrical charge at the time was to either add or reduce the number of metal plates of the pile in series, respectively. Ritter's work set the stage for Georg Ohm's later established relation between current, electromotor force, and resistance. Ritter in one experiment passed the current of the pile through his hands, and made an observation about the behavior of the current. When the current was advanced rapidly in amplitude his hand holding the negative pole stiffened slightly while that of the other hand did not stiffen. This observation of a physiological response went unnoticed by colleagues who maintained that current from the pile (galvanic) only aided nutrition. Not until Pfluger announced in 1859 that tissue underneath the negative pole of a galvanic battery induced increased excitability (catelectrotonus), and tissue underneath the positive pole responded with decreased excitability (anelectrotonus) (4) was Ritter's observation of the negative galvanic polarity explained. Johann Wilhelm Ritter was born in Samitz, Silesia (then Germany, now Chojnow, Poland) on 16 December 1776, and died in Munich, Germany on 23 January 1810. (5) He studied as a private scholar (6/66) and became a pharmacist (apothecary) apprentice for four years (5) (1799-1803). He was renown, however, for his work in chemistry, physics, and physiology, but mostly liked to experiment with electricity. This work was conducted while a professor at the Universities of Liegnitz, and Jena, and the Bavarian Academy of Science in Munich. (7) In 1798, he published Beweiss, Dass Ein Bestandiger Galvanismus den Lebensprozess im Tierreich Begleitet. (7) He published Beitrage zur Naheren Kenntnis des Galvanismus, Das Electrische Septem des Korpers in 1805, and Physikalisch-Chemische......., 3 volumes, in 1806. While a professor at the University of Jena (1803-1804) he was an aggressive scientist. He got involved with the philosophy of chemistry because of his German pride. He was supportive of the phlogistic theory of his countrymen Becher and Stahl (also supported by Joseph Priestley of England) which brought him in conflict with Lavoisier's philosophy that reduced all chemistry into measurable entities. (8/228). With encouragement from Alexander von Humboldt he began experiments in galvanism. He has been given some credit for relating electricity and galvanism, and he supported it by data from his experiments. (6/110) Ritter was appointed to the court of Gotha in 1801, (9) and in 1802 he then left the University of Jena for the University of Gotha (40 miles away). While giving private lectures, and continuing his research in galvanism he was sponsored by Duke Ernst von Sachsen-Gotha. In 1802, he developed a dry cell battery from his efforts with electrolytic cells. (5) Ritter used 600 pieces of zinc, copper, and white sheep leather which in appearance looked dry. He found that his new combination worked as well as the Volta pile to charge Leyden jars, and continued to function equally well for six days. Volta's pile worked only about 15 to 20 minutes before exhausting. Ritter again did not publish his work on the dry pile because he stated that his two months of very concentrated research would take him two years to write. He worked on the dry pile because the Volta pile dried up after several days as it continued to show some activity on the electroscope. The dry pile did not require much moisture. The successive reinventions of the dry pile by others produced a cell that functioned only as well as Ritter's. (6/346). His major work, however, was done in electrochemistry and electrophysiology in 1803 and 1804 at Gotha. He moved to Munich in 1804 to take a faculty position at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. (9) He was able to isolate the element potassium. (7) His dry or secondary pile was called a charging pile, and consisted of one metal with discs separated by circular pieces of cloth, flannel, or cardboard moistened in a liquid which could not chemically affect the metal. When ends of the pile were connected with poles of a Voltaic pile it would take on a charge and when charged it could be substituted for a Voltaic pile without being connected to the charging source. Ritter's charging pile could remain charged (~ 5 min) while delivering sparks, shocks, and decomposing water. (10) He continued to modify and improve upon his charging pile. On one occasion he arranged 32 copper and cardboard discs in three series. Two of the series contained 16 copper discs while the intermediate series consisted of 32 cardboard discs. He then built a charging pile so that discs were alternated, using 31 copper discs and once he used 64 as well as 128 copper discs with similar discs of cardboard. He used each of his new piles to make observations of water decomposition, and their physiological effects, shocks, and electrical tensions. The results of his experiments and modified charging piles were published. His charging pile was called the Ritterian pile after his death. His largest pile consisted of 2,000 pieces. His early death at age 34 years was caused by his untiring work, sadness, and hard living. (10) In 1805, Ritter moved to Munich to take a position at the Bavarian Academy of Science, and his publications on electricity, some as early at 1796, won him membership in the Munich Academy of Science in the same year. (10) In Munich he became involved with experiments with dividing rods and pendulums which he contended had hidden electricity of electrical polarity. Ritter claimed that he had discovered a different form of electrical polarity of the earth than that caused by magnetic polarity. He maintained that his newly discovered effect could be demonstrated by suspending a gold needle properly. Oersted attempted to replicate Ritter's experiment, but never could successfully. Ritter's work at the end of 1805 was being questioned by scientists, and during the last part of his life he gained a reputation of being unreliable. (2) His entry into occult science influenced this later work, (9) and such experiments destroyed Ritter's science reputation as a competitive scientist. Because of these experiments and his unsubstantiated claims historians have ignored Ritter's work between 1806 and 1810. In spite of the criticism leveled toward him he continued experimenting, but his science career was finished. Even in the prime of his science career Ritter's work was obscure because of the difficulties encountered by other scientists reading and interpreting his findings. His experiments were considered as very cumbersome and written in a twisted style which made reading and understanding difficult to impossible in some cases. (2) In spite of his straying from orthodox science during his career, he was the first to construct an electrical accumulator in 1803 after learning about the discovery of Gautherot, the French chemist. He proposed a theory of electrochemistry, and demonstrated the attraction and repulsion of electrical charges. (7) Ritter studied the spectrum, and as a result of his studies showed that light was similar to electricity in having a chemical role. (8/59) His work with electrical cells convinced him that electrical forces had something to do with bonding of chemical elements. He developed an electrochemical series. He also studied the light effect on chemical reactions, and found that the darkening of silver chloride in light was from ultraviolet radiation. (5) His discovery of ultraviolet radiation was independent of Wollaston's discovery, also in 1802. (7) REFERENCES
The above essay was written and generously posted on this site by Dean P. Currier As 2000 progresses, other biographical studies by Dean Currier will also be added to this website. Thanks Dean.
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