582 INDUCTIVE ACTION ON JETS. 



the electrified body is brought near, the separation of 

 the drops takes place at the end of the clear portion 

 of the jet and the drops are scattered in wide -spreading 

 arcs, as in fig. 311 B. The drops manifest mutual 

 electrical repulsion, and if some of them are allowed 

 to fall upon the proof-plane or a larger sheet of metal 

 (5 or 10 cm in diameter) fixed to an insulating handle, 

 their electricity as indicated by a charged electroscope 

 will be seen to be of the opposite kind to that of the 

 electrified body brought near the jet; if sealing-wax 

 has been used, the drops are positively charged; if glass, 

 they are negative. 



The electrified body produces electrical separation, 

 by induction, over that portion of the jet which forms a 

 connected whole. Electricity of the same kind as that 

 of the electrified body is repelled towards the body of 

 water in the vessel, while the opposite electricity is 

 attracted towards the issuing jet and the drops, charged 

 all with the same electricity, dart away from each other 

 just at the point of the jet where the cohesion of the 

 drops is becoming less and is therefore overcome by the 

 force of electrical repulsion. Since each drop as it is 

 torn away from the remainder carries its own charge 

 with it, it may easily be tested; it is not so easy, how- 

 ever, to examine the electricity with which the water in 

 the vessel becomes charged by induction, for although 

 the vessel is of glass it becomes moist during the experi- 

 ment and the charge is conducted to the ground. On 

 the other hand, when the vessel is insulated, the experi- 

 ment does not succeed so well ; in that case the induced 

 electricity which is of the same kind as that of the 



