1895.] Electrification of Air, $c., by bubbling through Water. 335 



February 21, 1895. 



The LORD KELVIN, D.C.L., LL.D., President, followed by 

 Sir JOHN EVANS, K.C.B., D.C.L., LL.D., Vice-President and 

 Treasurer, in the Chair. 



A List of the Presents received was laid on the table, and thanks 

 ordered for them. 



The following Papers were read : 



I. "Electrification of Air and other Gases by bubbling 

 through Water and other Liquids." By LORD KELVIN, 

 P.R.S., MAGNUS MACLEAN, M.A., F.R.S.E., and ALEXANDER 

 GALT, B.Sc., F.R.S.E. Received February 7, and February 

 15, 1895. 



1. At the meeting of the British Association in Oxford in August, 

 1894, a communication was given to section A, entitled " Preliminary 

 Experiments to find if Subtraction of Water from Air Electrifies it." 

 These experiments were performed during July of 1894, and were a 

 continuation of experiments which were commenced in the Physical 

 Laboratory of the University of Glasgow in December of 1868 with 

 the same object, but which were then, for various reasons, discon- 

 tinued before any decisive result had been obtained. 



2. A glass IJ-fa 1 ^ 6 with vertical branches (fig. 1), each 18 inches 

 long and about 1-inch bore, with the upper 8 inches of one of the 

 branches carefully coated outside and inside with clean shellac varnish, 

 was held fixed by an uninsulated support attached to the upper end 

 of this branch. The other branch was filled with little fragments of 

 pumice soaked in strong sulphuric acid or in water, and a fine 



Fm. 1. 



