fcistorg of Electrical Science. 



soul used to be stirred to its depths by this 

 oratorical display of electrical fireworks! 



Franklin had long entertained the idea that 

 tho lightning of the clouds was identical with 

 what is called frictional electricity, and he 

 waited long for a church spire to be erected 

 in his adopted home, the Quaker City, in or- 

 der that he might make the test and settle the 

 question. But the Quakers did not believe in 

 spires, and Franklin's patience had a limit. 



Franklin had the theory that most inves- 

 tigators had at that time, that electricity was 

 a fluid and that certain substances had the 

 power to hold it. There were two theories 

 prevalent in those days both fluid theories. 

 One theory was that there were two fluids, a 

 positive and a negative. Franklin held to the 

 theory of a single fluid, and that the phe- 

 nomenon of electricity was present only when 

 the balance or natural amount of electricity 

 was disturbed. According to this theory, a 

 body charged with positive electricity had an 

 .-ive amount, and, of course, some other 

 body somewhere else had less than nature had 

 allotted to it; hence it was charged with 

 negative electricity. A Leyden jar, for in- 

 stance, having one of its coatings (say the 

 in-i'i' -I with p>-itive or + electricity, 



tin- other coating will he charged with negative 

 or electricity. The former was only a nani" 

 for an amount above normal and the latter a 



