It appeared interesting to find out how electricity would act on different substances.

    Two Englishmen, Carlisle, a physician, and Nicholson, an engineer, decided to start with water. By that time chemists had sufficient grounds to state that water consisted of hydrogen and oxygen. But somehow they had been unable to obtain conclusive proof.

    Carlisle and Nicholson used an electric battery consisting of 17 voltaic cells. It gave a very strong current. And the water began to decompose vigorously into two gases, hydrogen and oxygen; in other words, electrolysis set in. That is what we call the process of decomposition of substances by electricity.

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