ELECTRICITY. 515 



fields and forests, sends forth its thunderings and light- 

 nings incessantly, comes over the pointed rods of the 

 city, its charge is drawn off, almost as rapidly as it gath- 

 ers, the flashes are less frequent and less vivid, and 

 everything indicates the mitigation of the storm. 



If a point proceeds from any electrified body, there is 

 always to be observed issuing from it a current of air. 

 This is the case whichever way the body is electrified. 

 Let a sharp point be attached to the prime conductor, 

 and then ' present the face, or the palm of the hand, to 

 the point at the distance of about three inches, and a 

 wind will be perceived to proceed from it. 



' Fasten five or six pieces of paper to a cork, like the 

 leaves of a water wheel in hydraulics; pass a needle, by 

 way of an axis, through the cork, and suspend it by ap- 

 plying the end of the needle to a magnet. Let a point- 

 ed wire be fixed at the end of the prime conductor, and 

 present the paper vanes of the cork suspended, Sec, to 

 the current of air which proceeds from that point, when 

 the machine is in action ; and ihe force of that wind wjll 

 cause the cork to turn round. 



' This current of air always proceeds from the point, 

 whether the point be electrified positively or negatively : 

 therefore it is not the influx or the elllux of the electric 

 fluid that occasions the wind ; but it is owing to the par- 

 ticles of air which, acquiring the same electricity as the 

 pointed wire, are repelled from it in virtue of the repul- 

 sion which takes place between bodies possessed of the 

 same kind of electricity, be it positive or negative. Other 

 particles of air succeed those which are repelled first, 

 and these being electrified are also repelled, and soon. 



' When the wire, instead of a pointed termination, is 

 furnished with a ball of about an inch and a quarter in 

 diameter, a curious phenomenon may be observed, by 

 presenting the flame of a candle to it, viz. so that the 

 middle of the flame may be even with the middle of the 

 ball. The machine being put in action, it will be found 

 that the flame is blown from the ball, when the latter is 

 electrified positively, viz. when it is connected with the 

 rubber of the machine, or with a negative prime conduc- 

 tor ; which seems to show the real influx and efflux of 

 the electric fluid, according to the Franklinian theory.' 



