 The latter problem was solved in 1835 by the English inventor William Sturgeon, who found that amalgamated zinc, whose surface had been treated with some mercury, didn't suffer from local action.Despite its flaws, Volta's batteries provide a steadier current than Leyden jars, and made possible many new experiments and discoveries, such as the first electrolysis of water by the English surgeon Anthony Carlisle and the English chemist William Nicholson.An English professor of chemistry named John Frederic Daniell found a way to solve the hydrogen bubble problem in the Voltaic Pile by using a second electrolyte to consume the hydrogen produced by the first.