POLAR ATTRACTION OF THE BATTERY. 139 



the power will cause the gold leaves to burn 

 away, which they could only do when they 

 touched each other. Now I am going to cause 

 these two leaves of gold to approach gradually, 

 and I have no doubt that some of jou will see 

 that they approach before they burn, and those 

 who are too far off to see them approach will 

 see by their burning that they have come to- 

 gether. Now they are attracting each other, 

 long before the connection is complete, and 

 there they go ! burnt up in that brilliant flash, 

 so strong is the force. You thus see, from the 

 attractive force at the two ends of this battery, 

 that these are really and truly electrical pheno- 

 mena. 



Now, let us consider what is this spark. I 

 take these two ends and bring them together, 

 and there I get this glorious spark like the 

 sunlight in the heavens above us. What is 

 this ? It is the same thing which you saw 

 when I discharged the large electrical machine, 

 when you saw one single bright flash ; it is the 

 same thing, only continued, because here we 

 have a more effective arrangement. Instead 

 of having a machine which we are obliged to 

 turn for a long time together, we have here a 



