JOURNAL 



OP 



NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, CHEMISTRY, 



AND 



THE ARTS. 



JANUARY, 1811. 



ARTICLE I. 



Experiments concerning the Electric Machine ; showing 

 the Electric Effects of Friction between Bodies, By 3. 

 A. DeLuc, Esq, F.H.S. 



T. 



HE invention of the electric mdchine, which has been inYcntion of 



within my time, and of which I have followed the progress, ^''^ electric 



• 1 /T. r ^- ' machine, 



was, with respect to the long known efiects of friction on 



amber and other substances, what Si^. Volta's pile has 

 been to the discovery made by Sig. Galvani of the motion 

 produced in the limbs of a recently dead frog by the asso- 

 ciation of two proper metals : I mean, that, by increasing 

 these effects, a particular ^wirf has been Ibund to be the 

 cause of both. However, though \\\\% fluid has been so long History and 



discovered by the electric machine^ its .nature has not yet H^^^'^^^*^*"* 

 1 I 1. 1111 invention. 



been agreed upon among all experimental philosophers. 



A rapid motion communicated to small globes of different 

 substances, rubbed by the hands, was found to produce 

 certain effects susceptible of being propagated at an unli- 

 mited distance through metallic wires, suspended by silk, 

 or'suppoited by glass; and these effects con'^isted, not only 

 ia greater motions of bodies than were produced by the 

 friction of amber^ but in strong luminous phenomena. 



Vol. XXVUL— No. 126.— Jan. 1811. B The 



