330 On Electricitjj excited in Paper. 



a moderately intelligent person may not with ease over- 

 come. 



I shall now touch on 



The pREPOsiTivEs. 

 These are no more in form than ordinary consonants ; but, 

 in consequence of their size and elevation, they become even 

 strikingly conspicuous. They are equivalent to capitals in 

 common writing ; and represent, as far as possible, by outline, 

 or rather by some obvious characteristic, the incipient looped 

 characters whose place, for the promotion of brevity, they are 

 intended to supply. The looped incipients are in all but five ; 

 of which, Ch occurring too rarely to notice, there are but four 

 to recognise ; viz. G, K, L, P, which shall be delineated on 

 the plate. P, in the mean time, may serve to elucidate my 

 object, it being written not P = S but | ; as in the words 

 viprt ^ \^ [that is, '■'■ my part"\ Here the loop appertaining 

 to P is omitted, and the letter thus represented by its line* 

 alone. L is likewise represented by its proper line /: K by 

 the curve with which it commences "^ ; and G, through ne- 

 cessity, not choice, by the reverse of K, as f . 



LXX. On Electricity excited in Paper. 



To the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine and Journal. 



T^HE following is an account of an experiment which was 

 suggested by an accidental circumstance. Should you 

 think it worthy of insertion in your valuable publication, it 

 may possibly amuse some of your readers. 



If half a sheet of letter paper be made very warm at the 

 fire, then laid flat on the table, and, while held by one of the 

 edges, rubbed hard with a piece of Indian rubber (or elastic 

 gum), it will be observed to stick to the table as if it were wet. 

 When this is observed to be the case, if two opposite edges 



ing, it may perhaps be necessary to use this kind of writing while following 

 a rapid speaker. But, on such occasions, we must dispense with almost all 

 the vowels ; and even omit so many petty words as well as syllables of our 

 more consequential words ; that deripherbig rather than reading is the in- 

 evitable result. If, in common long-hand without contractions, our writing 

 (when we are hard pressed) is scarcely legible by ourselves, how must it 

 be with short-hand? 



* Incipient P thus written before S, which is a horizontal line, must 

 produce a right angle, in opposition to my general design. It is not, how- 

 ever, incumbent on the practitioner to use either P or any other of the 

 Prepositives : yet I must observe that in my own practice I find them ex- 

 ceedingly convenient ; nay, they simplify the writing to my eye. 



be 



