406 On the Franklinian Theory 



and kept so while the experiments were performed. An excited 

 glass tube always repelled the pith-balls ; but excited wflx first 

 attracted and then repelled them ; t!ie wax when it repelled 

 them was found to be positive. The prime conductor was now 

 connected with the ground, and the experiments pertoruied at 

 the negative conductor. The excited wax ulways repelled the 

 balls, but the excited tube Jirst attrartt-d and then repelled 

 them ; the tube when it repelled the balN vva< found to be we- 

 gative. These experiments heautifullv illustrate and confirm 

 those made with the same bodies on the jar ; and at the same 

 time demonstrate that the causes assigned for tlie electrical 

 changes which occurred in those bodies are the true ones. — And 

 as the investigation is novv completed, it will be proper to state 

 the conclusions or propositions which appear to be established 

 by it. 



1st. That the surface of a Leyden jar which communicates 

 with the conductor of an electrical machine in action, acquires 

 a charge (however intense that charge may l)e) of the same kind 

 of electriicity as that of the conductor with which it communi- 

 cates. 



This propasition is proved by Experiments 1, 5, 10, 12, 14, 

 15, and 16, 



2d That the surface of the same jar which communicates 

 \vith the ground acquires at the same time a charge (h )wever 

 intense it may be) of the contrary kind of electricity to that of 

 the conductor with which the other surface communicates. 



This proposition is proved by Experiments G, 7, H, 13, 17, 

 IS, and 19. 



3d. That an excited electric by being opposed to a surface 

 highly charged with the contrary electricitv and of greater elec- 

 trical capacity, will rapidly lose its excited electrical state, and 

 acquire a state similar to that of the electrified surface to which 

 it is opposed. 



This proposition is proved by Experiments 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 14, 

 IS, and bv two of those made at the conductors of the machine. 



Now the two former of the above propositions may be re- 

 duced into one, which may be thus expressed : That the opposite 

 surfaces of a c!iarj;ed jar, however intense its charge may be, 

 are always in oppi;site states of electricity. And as these op- 

 posite states are the immediate results of those laws of electrical 

 action which the Franklinian theory of the jar contemplates ; 

 that theory, so far as it accounts for these opposite states, is by 

 the above-cited experiments fully demonstrated. It is novv time 

 to advert to Mr. Donovan's experiments, in order to point out 

 the source of his errors, the negligence with which he examined 

 the electrical states of the jar on which he opetatcd, and the 



futility 



