ON ELECTRICAL ATTRACTIONS AtfD REPULSIpNS. gj<J 



Consider, that by an electrification continued for a certain 

 time it is not only reduced to the state of an excellent con- 

 ductor ; as every one, who will subject pointed tubes of glass 

 to a powerful electrification for a time proportionate to the 

 length and thickness of the glas9, may convince himself; 

 but that it is capable of supersaturating itself with this fluid, 

 when one side of its surfaces is surrounded with a conduct- 

 ing substance, as metal, water, the hand, &c. Such is the 

 Leyden phial, such the conductors of which I speak here 

 when grasped in the hand, such the glass in this experiment 

 of Mr. Libes, and such the glass balls of experiment 6, 

 Every thing therefore tends to establish an analogy between 

 the nonattraction of glass in the electric state and the neu- 

 tralization of acids and alkalis, which is sometimes so per- 

 fect, that mixtures of two things that bnrn very powerfully 

 when separate exhibit no sign of causticity. Experiments 

 carefully made by ?vlr. Lugt, which I shall translate in ray 

 Essay on the Leyden phial, prove, that a communication Leyden phial 

 with the ground is not necessary to charge it, but that it is m *V be charg- 

 surficient to establish a sort of circulation between an elec- lated. 

 trical machine and an insulated phial. 



5th Experiment, 



ft Hang three bells on a metallic rod furnished with a 5th experi- 

 hook in the middle to suspend it from the conductor of an ment * 

 electrical machine. Two tff these bells are to be fastened Electrical 

 by a metallic chain to the end of the rod; the middle bell, chimes, 

 and two small bells of metal hanging between it and the 

 bells on each side, are to be fastened to the rod by a silk 

 thread. From the inside of the middle bell depends a 

 chain, which should reach to the floor, or be held in the 

 hand during the experiment. Every thing being thus ar- 

 ranged, electrify the apparatus, and immediately the two 

 little balls of metal will be attracted, each by its correspond- 

 ing outer bell. Having' struck this, they are immediately 



bodies, and constitutes a part of their substance. In the act of combina- 

 tion it loses its physical properties, and is no longer perceptible by mean* 

 of the thermometer." Is not this the phlogiston of Stuhl under another 

 name? 



repelled 



