«J]2 ON ELECTRICAL ATTRACTIONS AND REPULSIONS* 



and communication with another substance saturated with 

 this fluid: but I have observed, that to render it electrical 

 one of its sides must be in immediate contact with a conduct- 

 ing substance communicating directly with the ground. 

 Here the glass held externally between the two hands is 

 nothing more than a Leyden phial : the pith balls are at- 

 tracted by the power of affinity toward its charged sides ; 

 and the table, on which the glass rests, attracts them in its 

 turn. Thus here again we have two attractions; whence 

 the appearance of alternate attraction and repulsion, which 

 continues as in the preceding experiments, as long as the 

 interior sides of the glass are capable of furnishing a super- 

 abundance of fluid. Mr. Delametberie has received from 

 Glass conduc- me a glass conductor twelve or fifteen inches long, which I 

 tor - sent him about six months ago, to give him a slight idea of 



my large glass conductors. Since that time I have found, 

 that, on holding these little tubes by the middle, and keep- 

 ing them in contact with the prime conductor for a few se- 

 conds while the machine revolves, the whole substance of 

 the glass imbibes the electric fluid like a sponge: that we 

 have time enough to carry the point, which is a little ob- 

 tuse, and had been in contact with the machine, toward the 

 knob of a Leyden phial held in the other hand: and that 

 touching it about twenty times is sufficient to charge it as 

 strongly as by so many sparks from the cap of a good elec- 

 trophones. I have not yet examined the nature of the fluid 

 it gives, a subject that deserves a place in an essay on the 

 Leyden phial, in which I intend to examine whether the 

 phenomena be not more naturally explained by the hypo-, 

 thesis of one fluid, than of two. As the fluid in this case 

 issues from a point, it does not exhibit sparks, but a kind 

 of current, that is extremely brilliant. 



Must not all these experiments lead us to suspect, that, 

 if glass frequently appear to have no affinity for the electric 

 fluid, it is because its bases, at the time of their uniting in 

 the state of fusion, perfectly neutralise the igaeous matter* ? 



Consider 



• Caloric, if you please, as Mr. Libes defines it in the art'de Combined 

 Caloric, which is so interesting and short, *that I cannot refrain from 

 copying it. '• It is that which intimately combines with the particles of 



bodies, 



