48 Mr. Woodward on the Transmission of [July, 



Article X. 



On the Transmission of 'Electricity through Tubes of Water, fyc. 

 ByMr. C.Woodward. 



(To the Editor of the Annals of Philosophy.) 

 SIR, Junt 5, 1824. 



On perusing the last number of your Annals, 1 observed a 

 letter signed T. J., informing me " that the experiment of firing 

 loose gunpowder by passing the charge of a leyden phial through 

 tubes filled with water, and also on the conducting power of 

 alcohol, ether, and acids, were made by a Mr. Lewthwaite, in 

 May 1821 ; and are published in the eleventh volume of the 

 Institution Journal:" the natural inference of which, I appre- 

 hend, is, either that I published some experiments as new, 

 which were not so ; or that I gave as my own, the experiments 

 of another. 



If T. J. will refer to my letter, I think he will perceive that 

 my object was to offer a theory in explanation of a singular 

 phenomenon, and not merely to state the fact of the inflamma- 

 tion of loose gunpowder, or the conducting power of alcohol, 

 ether, and acids. For this purpose I introduced the subject 

 ■as briefly as I could, and then enumerated the experiments, 

 which led me to conclude that the theory I offered was the cor- 

 rect one. 



" It was (observes T. J.) from reading this letter that I be- 

 came acquainted with the experiment." This, however, was 

 not the case with myself, as the effects of electricity on loose 

 gunpowder, when transmitted through tubes of water, were 

 communicated by me to Mr. Lewthwaite some time previous 

 to the publication of his letter. 



It is extremely painful to speak of one's self; therefore, in 

 my last communication, I avoided any allusion to what I had 

 done elsewhere ; but considering myself now called upon to 

 explain, allow me, through you, to inform T. J. that 1 intro- 

 duced the experiment in my concluding lecture on Electricity, 

 at the Surry Institution, in December 18*20 ; observing at the 

 same time, that I could not offer any theory in explanation, the 

 experiment having been but a few hours communicated to me 

 by my much esteemed friend, Mr. Knight Spencer, the Secre- 

 tary to the Institution. 



Early in 1821 I instituted a series of experiments to ascer- 

 tain the cause ; and, although I had then no explanation to 

 offer, my experiments woidd have been presented to the public 

 through the medium of one of the philosophical journals, had 

 not the appearance of Mr. L.'s letter in the Institution Journal 



