36 Mr. R. Phillips on Frictional Electricity. 



this result was only one-tenth of that which, in the present in- 

 stance, did not produce a greater attraction than 175 lbs. It is 

 therefore improbable that any force of current could give an 

 attraction equal to 200 lbs. per square inch. 



Experiment VI. — The magnetic needle was suspended as in 

 Experiment I., and its vibrations, with 4 cells in a series of 2, 

 were found to be 63 per minute. I then placed the large bar 

 used in Experiment IV. across the poles, so as to neutralize their 

 action. The number of vibrations of the needle per minute was 

 then found to be 62, or only 1 less than before ; showing that 

 the neutralization of the magnetic tension of the poles (which 

 were only 3 inches in breadth, that of the core at its greatest 

 being 12 inches) permitted the tension of the remaining unneu- 

 tralized breadth of 9 inches to be increased so as to prevent 

 almost any diminution in the action on the needle. 



Acton Square, Salford, 

 Dec. 16, 1851. 



VI. On Frictional Electricity. By Reuben Phillips, Esq.* 



THE following electro-chemical theory is so far identical with 

 that propounded by Sir H. Davy, that it regards the most 

 simple forms of matter as electrified, and chemical action to con- 

 sist only in the redistribution of the electric force. Sir H. Davy's 

 theory was found at the time of its publication to be rather un- 

 manageable, and accordingly Berzelius gave it a generally received 

 version, which says that electricity is generated by the proximity 

 of diverse particles. But this, as I understand it, requires the 

 admission of an unknown force, which the proximity of the 

 molecules developed into electricity. 



Taking, for example, a volume of hydrogen, it by no means 

 follows, that because it does not affect the electrometer, that there- 

 fore the gas contains no electricity. For, suppose each particle 

 to be electrified by having positive electricity developed on one 

 end, and its equivalent of negative electricity on the other end, 

 then, however intense this polarization may be, the neutrality of 

 the mass is perfect, because of the equality of the two opposite 

 electric forces, and the minuteness and independence of the 

 particles f. 



* Communicated by the Author. 



t It has been represented to me, that the particles cannot be neutral 

 and independent if thus polarized, and I therefore state the experiments 

 which appear to me to justify the assumption. If we take two plates of 

 metal and insulate them in the air, with their surfaces parallel and some 

 distance apart, and charge one positively, and the other, to an equal amount, 

 negatively, then on approximating these two parallel surfaces, the external 

 electrical excitement, as indicated by an electrometer, can be made to dis- 



