0Utftk. 



ggg IRON CYLINDER BURST BY ELECTRICITY. 



which is a mixture of carbon and hidrogen, rendered the ne- 

 gative wire black for more than two ii.ches ; the water and the 

 rest of the wire were tinged yellow ; and when I made thedis- 

 cbarg-e, this tinge Spread more than a foot round the long 

 wire, now become negative. All the rest of the water re- 

 mained limpid. 

 Theory of two When I first began these researches, T attempted to explain 

 the phenomena of electricity by ,Symmer's theory of two 

 fluids, because this theory is in no respect inconsistent with 

 elective attraction, to which L have ever considered all sub- 

 stances obedient. But the moment I succeeded in detecting 

 the passage of the fluid through the pores of uncoated ^lass, 

 I confessed my mistake. I am ready to do the same, witH 

 respect to the inferences I draw from my last experiments, 

 and I shall hereafter follow your advice, " seek ;or new facts, ^ 

 and let; theories spring from them as they may." 



Was not Mr. Orsted right in saying, that, when the elec- 

 tric fluid was better known, we should be able to explairi 

 several natural phenomena, hitherto inexplicable? 



Observations on the preceding Experiments. By J. C. De-» 



LAMETHERIE. 



The four new JL/O not these effects of electricity, in rupturing masses 



planets frog* Q f , Q mucn tenacity as iron cylinders, give some probability 

 Bients of a ■ i -i • 1 1 " 



large one. to the idea of those German astronomers, who nave said, that 



the four new planets, Ceres, Juno, Pallas, and Vesta, are 

 fragments of a larg?r planet formerly situate between Mars 

 and Jupiter, and broken by some unknown cause ? Sup- 

 pose, for instance, that the centre of this planet was a mass of 

 metal, similarly circumstanced with the author's cylinders; 

 and that a metallic vein, or any other conducting substance, 

 acted like the leaden wire, and conducted the electricity of 

 the atmosphere into the metallic mass: might not a great 

 number of strong discharges, such as occur in violent 

 thunderstdrms, burst this metallic mass asunder, and pro- 

 ject 



