and on certain Principles in Electrical Science. 471 



conductor at one third the distance from the inflammable 

 matter, of that, at which Mr. Sturgeon can produce a lateral 

 discharge with a jar of " only a quart capacity," viz. '*50 

 feet." 



21. But Mr. Sturgeon proposes to apply cylindrical copper 

 rods in the rigging ; their " upper extremities to be attached 

 to the tops, &c. &c.", " their lower extremities to the chains 

 of the shrouds," and to be united by " broad straps of cop- 

 per to the sheathing," that is to say, by conductors with 

 edges, which he says throw off the charge into neighbouring 

 bodies ; this too after having told us, that the most spacious 

 conductor may become red-hot, and that lateral discharges 

 always take place when the vicinal bodies are capacious^ and 

 near the principal conductor or any of its metallic appendages. 

 Under such circumstances what is to become of the rigging, 

 sails, masts? will they not be set on fire? Are not the 

 massive iron hoops and other metals about the masts, the 

 chains of the shrouds bolted through the ship's side, and 

 other metallic bodies in the hull, such as bolts, tanks, chain 

 cables, &c. &c. mcinal capacious bodies^ and reaching by in- 

 terrupted metallic circuits up to the very magazines Mr. 

 Sturgeon talks so much about ? Must not a ship with such 

 conductors be necessarily destroyed ? Surely he must give 

 the British Association and the learned bodies of Europe and 

 America, &c., very little credit for philosophical penetration, 

 if he thinks they will not immediately discard such philosophy 

 as this. 



22. Either his " theoretical and experimental researches" 

 are true, and his system of conductors fatal and absurd, or 

 otherwise, if his conductors be good for anything, then his 

 theoretical and experimental reseaixhes are good for nothing. 

 He may adhere either to the one or the other, but he cannot 

 have both; such is the reductio ad absurdum in which he 

 is involved. 



Mr. Sturgeon's anxiety to arrive at conclusions unfavour- 

 able to my conductors, has led him to conclusions subversive 

 of all conductors, his oum especially. 



23. The mere circumstance of finding his " third kind of 

 lateral explosion " decrease in power, by uninsulating his jar, 

 might alone have led him to doubt the accuracy of his de- 

 duction. On so important a point, and before he ventured 

 to awaken the prejudices and fears of the uninformed, we had 

 a right to expect at his hands a profound scientific inquiry. 

 He should at least have tried whether he could not get this 

 spark after the main charge had passed (m) as well as at the 

 apparent time of passing. The quantity of electricity should 

 have been accurately measured, and its effects in producing 



