158 ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES OF SILK. 



with more vigour than the cork itself. He afteri 

 wards fixed the ball upon long sticks, and upon 

 pieces of brass and iron wire, with the same sudi 

 cess ; and lastly attached it to a long piece of pack- 

 thread, and hung it from a high balcony, in which 

 state he found that, by rubbing the tube, the ball 

 was constantly enabled to attract light bodies in 

 the court below. 



His next attempt was to prove whether this 

 power could be conveyed horizontally as well as 

 perpendicularly. With this view, he fixed a cord 

 to a nail which was in one of the beams of the 

 ceiling ; and making a loop at that end which hung 

 down, he inserted his packthread, with the ball 

 which was at the end of it through the loop of the 

 cord, and retired with the tube to the other end of 

 the room ; but in this state he found that the ball 

 had totally lost the power of attraction. Upon 

 mentioning his disappointed efforts to a friend, it 

 was suggested that the cord, which he had used to' 

 support his packthread, might be so coarse as toj 

 intercept the electric power ; and they accordingly 

 attempted to remedy this evil by employing a silk- 

 string, which was much stronger in proportion than 

 a hempen cord. With this apparatus the experi-' 

 ment succeeded far beyond their expectations. 

 Encouraged by this success, and attributing it 

 wholly to the fineness of the silk, they proceeded 

 to support the packthread, to which the ball was 



