Franklin, Dufay atid Ampere. 487 



which, without repetition of contact, cannot be reproduced. 

 Hence it may be inferred that the carbonaceous vapour is 

 indispensable to this process, as a medium for the aethereo- 

 ponderable polarizing waves, being soon consumed by the 

 surrounding atmospheric oxygen. The excrescence upon the 

 negative charcoal, observed by Silliman, together with the 

 opposite appearance on the positive charcoal, may be owing 

 to the lesser affinity for oxygen on the negative side*. 



80. There may be some resemblance imagined between this 

 luminous discharge between the poles, and that which has 

 already been designated as disruptive (69) ; but this flaming 

 arch discharge does not break through the air, it only usurps 

 its place gradually, and then sustains this usurpation. It dif- 

 fers from the other as to its cause, so far as galvanic reaction 

 differs from friction : moreover, it requires a volatilizable, as 

 well as a polarizable pondei'able conducting substance to en- 

 able its appropriate undulations to meet at a mean distance 

 from the solid polar terminations, whence they respectively 

 jn'oceed. 



81. The most appropriate designation of the phaenomenon 

 under consideration, is that of aethereo-ponderable undulatory 

 deflagration. Under this head, we may not only place the 

 flaming arch, but likewise the active ignition and dissipation 

 of fine wire or leaf metal, when attached to one pole, and 

 made barely to touch the other. 



82. In one of Faraday's experiments, a circuit was com- 

 pleted by subjecting platina points, severally proceeding from 

 the poles of a voltaic series, while very near to each other, to 

 the flame of a spirit-lamp. This was ascribed by him to the 

 rarefaction of the air, but ought, as I think, to be attributed 

 to the polarizable aethereo-ponderable matter of the flame, 

 performing the same office as the volatilized carbon in the 

 flaming arch between charcoal points, to which reference has 

 been made. 



Summary. 



From the facts and reasoning which have been above stated, 

 it is presumed that the following deductions may be consider- 

 ed as highly probable, if not altogether susceptible of demon- 

 stration. 



The theories of Franklin, Dufay and Ampere, are irrecon- 

 cilable with the premises on which they are founded, and with 

 facts on all sides admitled. 



A charge of frictional electricity, or that species of electric 

 excitement which is produced by friction, is not due to any 



• American Journal of Science, vol. x. p. 12]. 1826. 



