4f96 Mr. R. Phillips on Electricity and Steam. 



with the electrometer. Sometimes, when the steam was turned 

 on, the roar was absent, and then the electrometer was with 

 difficulty acted on ; then suddenly the roar was set up, and 

 the electrometer was promptly and powerfully affected. 



64-. It appears to me that when water is discharged with 

 the steam and a smooth sibilant sound only obtained, that the 

 water passes off as a little stream from one part of the orifice, 

 but that with the roar the water escapes about equally from 

 each part of the hole. In the latter case it is doubtless much 

 more finely comminuted. 



65. When a jet of steam and water thus escapes into the 

 air, the particles of water, from their size and consequent 

 weight, will soon move faster than the atoms of water which 

 were discharged in the gaseous state. From this follows the 

 question. Are the particles of water charged by rubbing against 

 the gaseous matter? To this it must be answered, that this 

 electricity was not generated in the former experiments (46, 

 53.), where water, gaseous matter and friction were present. 

 Also, no experiment is known in which gaseous matter is cer- 

 tainly charged electrically by friction. (See Dr. Faraday's 

 paper on Steam Electricity, Experimental Researches in Elec- 

 tricity, vol. ii, p. 106.) 



Q6. A jet of steam being discharged into the air becomes 

 magnetic (ll.)j which I attribute to currents of electricity 

 passing from the hotter to the colder particles (33.), in this case 

 steam and air; the steam, or water which was discharged as 

 steam, being positive, and the air negative. When particles 

 of water are projected through the steam-cloud, I suppose they 

 collect together the minute positive particles, thus becoming 

 themselves positively electrified, leaving the gaseous matter 

 negative. I have yet made no direct experiments to ascertain 

 the minimum pressure at which these effects are produced, 

 but I am certain they may be obtained at a much lower pres- 

 sure than 40 lbs. on the inch. 



67. Since these electrical effects are produced by the trans- 

 mission of drops of water through a steam-cloud in the act of 

 formation, it appears to me that these electrical developments 

 may occur in the atmosphere. In my experiments, the drops 

 of water were so fine that they were separated with difficulty 

 from the air, but I see no reason for supposing that the elec- 

 trical action would be essentially different if the drops were 

 so much larger as to separate themselves by their weight. 

 Lightning will thus result from a rapid condensation, the de- 

 scending rain and mist being positive, leaving the upper re- 

 gions negative. 

 i^ 68. I would have this explanation of the cause of lightning 



