<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (October 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (October 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> A Hofmann voltameter is an apparatus for electrolysing water, invented by August Wilhelm von Hofmann (1818--1892) in 1866 . It consists of three joined upright cylinders, usually glass . The inner cylinder is open at the top to allow addition of water and an ionic compound to improve conductivity, such as a small amount of sulphuric acid . A platinum electrode is placed inside the bottom of each of the two side cylinders, connected to the positive and negative terminals of a source of electricity . When current is run through Hofmann's voltameter, gaseous oxygen forms at the anode and gaseous hydrogen at the cathode . Each gas displaces water and collects at the top of the two outer tubes . </P> <P> The name' voltameter' was coined by Daniell, who shortened Faraday's original name of "volta - electrometer". Hofmann voltameters are no longer used as electrical measuring devices . However, before the invention of the ammeter, voltameters were often used to measure direct current, since current through a voltameter with iron or copper electrodes electroplates the cathode with an amount of metal from the anode directly proportional to the total coulombs of charge transferred (Faraday's law of electrolysis). The modern name is "electrochemical coulometer". Although the correct spelling of Hofmann contains only one' f', it is often incorrectly depicted as Hoffmann . </P>

Name the apparatus used for electrolysis of water