554 TH E INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



and were no sooner started than their authors found them- 

 selves compelled, upon the appearance of a new fact, to 

 remodel or reject them. They were, as a rule, the off- 

 spring of limited knowledge, promulgated because they 

 happened to fit specific phenomena with which their pro- 

 posers were acquainted, and not reached by any rigorous 

 system of induction from accumulated and well-chosen 

 facts. 



Through all of them, however, one clearly defined idea 

 now begins to show itself that of an electrical fluid; first 

 regarded as identical with fire, afterwards distinguished 

 therefrom. And because Franklin dealt with this fluid in 

 the simplest possible way, considering merely the quantity 

 of it, recognizing no varieties in it, and, in brief, treating 

 it from a purely material, almost mechanical, standpoint, 

 his conception replaced all others and survived them. 



To return, however, to Watson, who had resumed ex- 

 perimenting upon the L,eyden jar, and who was now en- 

 deavoring to increase its strength, which, as he says, he 

 succeeds in doing to an astonishing degree by using three 

 vials coated with sheet lead and containing each some 

 fifty pounds of shot. The wires which entered these were 

 connected by an iron rod which in turn communicated 

 with the gun-barrel prime conductor of an electric ma- 

 chine. The coatings were also connected by small wires, 

 all of which were united to a tail wire. Watson amused 

 himself in fact, from this time on nearly all electrical ex- 

 periments assume rather an entertaining character by 

 concealing the charged jars in his room and running the 

 tail wire from them through the carpet, so that it would be 

 invisible to any one standing on it, and then completing 

 the circuit by touching the gun barrel with his finger. In 

 this way he astonished his visitors with unexpected shocks 

 coming from no visible source. It will be observed that 

 his three jars were still connected in multiple arc, or 

 parallel, relation, a fact of especial significance in view 

 of the. steps taken by Franklin immediately after receiving 

 Watson's pamphlet, in which this experiment is described. 



