EXCITATION OF ELECTRICITY. 



King, such offender shall forfeit his office. 

 By several statutes, no process can be 

 sued out against an} officer of excise, 

 for any act done in the execution of his 

 office, until one month after notice given, 

 specifying the cause of action, and the 

 name and abode of the person who is to 

 begin, and the attorney who is to conduct, 

 the action : and within one month after 

 such notice, the officer may tender 

 amends, and plead such tender in bar; 

 and having tendered insufficient or no 

 amends, he may, with leave of the 

 court, before issue joined, pay money into 

 court. 



Officers of excise are empowered to 

 search at all times of the day, enter ware- 

 houses, or places for tea, coffee, &c. But 

 private houses can only be searched upon 

 oath of the suspicion before a commis- 

 sioner or justice of peace, who can by 

 their warrant authorise a search. The of- 

 fice of excise has also several excellent 

 regulations for procuring the due atten- 

 tion and good conduct of their officers. 



EXCITATION of electricity. When a 

 non-conductor of electricity is brought 

 into an electrified state by any other 

 means than that of direct communication 

 with some other electrified body, it is said 

 to be excited ; and this term is also ap- 

 plied to denote the like production of an 

 electric state, even in bodies which con- 

 duct. The processes by which excita- 

 tion is performed are very imperfectly un- 

 derstood. It is probable that they will 

 all be hereafter found to consist in the 

 same act ; and that this will principally 

 be governed by changes in the combi- 

 nation, and perhaps the temperature of 

 bodies. 



1. The electric state is produced in va- 

 rious bodies by heating or cooling, parti- 

 cularly in the tourmalin. Sulphur, cho- 

 colate, and various other substances, be- 

 come electrified upon congealing or be- 

 coming solid after fusion ; and it is proba- 

 ble that this phenomenon would be found 

 to be universal, if proper means were 

 adopted for ascertaining the electric states. 

 Calomel, when it fixes by sublimation 

 against the upper surface of a glass ves- 

 sel, frequently breaks through by an elec- 

 tric explosion. The glacial phosphoric 

 acid was observed by Chaptal to emit 

 strong electric sparks, while congealing. 

 Water and other fluids become electric 

 by evaporation. And the chemical changes 

 of bodies have been shewn, in numerous 

 galvanic experiments, to be attended with 

 corresponding changes of electricity. See 

 GALVANISM. 



2. The mechanical action of bodies up- 

 on each other produce electrical effects. 

 If two metals or other conductors be 

 brought into contact, and separated, or 

 if they be pressed or rubbed together, 

 electric signs are produced ; and the same 

 consequences follow, if one or both the 

 bodies be non-conductors : but the elec- 

 tricity is more manifest where the non- 

 conducting property prevails. When non- 

 conductors are broken or torn asunder, 

 the surfaces which were before in contact 

 are found to be in opposite electric states; 

 and this difference is so considerable in 

 Muscovy talc, that bright sparks pass be- 

 tween them. From these facts, there is 

 ground to suspect, that the opposite elec- 

 tric states prevail amongst the parts of 

 bodies, and may perhaps be in some man- 

 ner concerned in the general attraction 

 they exert upon each other. 



3. The electricity in our common ma- 

 chines is produced by the friction of a 

 conducting body against a non-conductor. 

 See MACHINK, electnc. 



The non-conductor may be a tube, a 

 globe, a cylinder, or a plate of glass, and 

 the conducting rubber is usually a cu- 

 shion, upon which a mixture of the amal- 

 gam of zinc with a little tallow has been 

 smeared. It is found to be a condition, 

 that atmospheric air should be present ; 

 and if the electricity be taken off from 

 the surface of the cylinder while it re- 

 volves, the cushion will not restore or 

 supply the electric state, unless it be ad- 

 mitted to communicate with the earth. 

 So that, if an insulated conductor be 

 placed near the cylinder, it will receive 

 electricity for a time, though the rubber 

 be also insulated ; but the rubber itself, 

 after assuming the negative state, will 

 soon cease to give any more electricity to 

 the cylinder, than the little it may obtain 

 from the imperfect nature of its insula- 

 tion. But if a communicating branch 

 from the positive conductor be brought 

 within a short distance of the negative 

 cushion, the positive sparks will fly 

 through the interval, and supply the cu- 

 shion; and in this manner the circulation 

 of electricity may, as far as yet has been 

 determined by experiment, be kept up 

 for an unlimited time. It seems, there- 

 fore, as if a chemical process requiring 

 atmospheric air, and therefore of the na- 

 ture of combustion, were carried on at 

 the face of the cushion, and that a pecu- 

 liar substance, on which the electric state 

 depends, becomes deposited or disposed 

 in a different manner from that which it 

 possessed before ; and that the relative 



