of Electricity 45 



same force that I did the steel. If now I 

 provide a Ley den jar and some points to 

 gather up the electricity that will be produced 

 (instead of the heat generated in the other 

 . it would be found that the energy de- 

 veloped in the one case would exactly balance 

 that of the other, if it were all gathered up and 

 put into work. The electricity stored in tho 

 jar is in a state of strain, like a bent bow, and 

 will recoil, when it has a chance, with a power 

 commensurate with the time it has. been stor- 

 ing and the amount of energy used in pressing 

 against the wheel. 



If now I connect my two hands, one with th(i 

 inside and the other with the outside of the 

 jar, this stored energy will strike me with a 

 force equal to all the energy I have previously 

 expanded in pressing against the wheel, minus 

 the lss in heat. If I did it for a long enough 

 time this electrical spring would be wound up 

 to such a tension that the recoil would destroy 

 life if one put himself in the path of its dis- 

 charge. If all the heat in the first case were 

 gathered up and made to bend a stiff spring, 

 and one should put him-elf in its way when 

 1. this mechanical spring would strike 

 with th<- <ame power that the electrical spring 

 did when the Leyden jar was discharged. 

 Tlii- statement assumes that all the energy in 

 the second experiment was stored as elec- 

 tricity in the jar. You will be able to see 



