74 FARADAY 



this stool, and receive the electricity through this conductor, 

 I could give it to anything that I touched. [The lecturer 

 stood upon the insulating stool, and placed himself in con- 

 nection with the conductor of the machine.] Now I am 

 electrified; I can feel my hair rising up, as the paper tassel 

 did just now. Let us see whether I can succeed in lighting 

 gas by touching the jet with my finger. [The lecturer 

 brought his finger near a jet from which gas was issuing, 

 when, after one or two attempts, the spark which came from 

 his finger to the jet set fire to the gas.] You now see how 

 it is that this power of electricity can be transferred from 

 the matter in which it is generated, and conducted along 

 wires and other bodies, and thus be made to serve new pur- 

 poses, utterly unattainable by the powers we have spoken 

 of on previous days; and you will not now be at a loss to 

 bring this power of electricity into comparison with those 

 which we have previously examined, and to-morrow we 

 shall be able to go farther into the consideration of these 

 transferable powers. 



