Electricity — Antiquities, 37^ 



which is observed in such or such season of certain years, 

 which renders these seasons and these years singularly re- 

 markable." 



XLVII. Miscellaneous Articles, 



ELECTRICITY, 



A Correspondent, Mr. Richard Hunt, of Howden, observes 

 that it is commonly held " that for the purpose of exciting 

 electricity by a machine, communication with the earth is 

 necessary, either from the cushion or the conductor; and, 

 above all, that in charging jars the jar must communicate 

 with the earth ; but that this is not quite correct, all that is 

 gained by such a communication being neither more nor less 

 than an indirect, connexion being established between the 

 cushion and the outside of the jar. Accordingly he finds 

 that if the machine, the jar, and the operator be all insulated, 

 still the jar may be charged if a communication has been 

 established between the outer coating and the cushion by 

 means of a wire or any conducting body interposed between 

 them." 



Our correspondent probably knows that by means of Mr. 

 Nairn's electrical machine two jars are charged without 

 having any connexion with the ground, and that in this 

 case, as well as the one he has stated, the effect may be 

 satisfactorily explained by the present or by the Fiankliniau 

 theory. 



ANTIQUITIES. 



The East India Company has received from its agent at 

 Bagdad twelve bricks of those which are still remaining near 

 Hilla, on the Euphrates, on the spot where the antient 

 Babylon, according to Major Rennel and other geographers, 

 is supposed to have stood. On these bricks characters are 

 engraved perfectly similar to those which are found in Persia 

 on the ruins of Chehilniinar, about a day's journey from 

 Shiraz, and commonly called Persepolitan. These charac- 

 ters, which have already been noticed by Le Bruyn, Kamp- 

 fer, Niebuhrj and others^ have hitherto been reckoned peculiar 



to 



