VOL. XXXVII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIOKS. 537 



thus cloathed, they were put into a large fir box, there to remain till he had 

 -occasion to use them. 



The cylinder of sulphur, N° 18, was made by melting the sulphur, and 

 pouring it into a cylindric glass vessel, which had first been heated, to prevent 

 its cracking. When the sulphur was hardened, it was somewhat less than the 

 glass; so that by inverting the glass, it came out easily, and had a polished sur- 

 face, almost as smooth as the glass in which it was cast. The large cone of 

 sulphur, N° jg, was made after the same manner ; viz. by being cast in a large 

 drinking-glass. 



Oi the following catalogue, the first column contains the number, which in 

 a small piece of paper is fixed on each of the several bodies; the name of which 

 is given in the 2d column, whether they are single or compound substances. 

 The 3d column shows their weight when melted, in avoirdupois ounces and 

 drachms. In the 4th column are the days of the month when the body was melted 

 and received its form, and consequently when it first began to attract. 



For 30 days he continued to observe every one of these botlies, and found 

 that at the end of that time they attracted as vigorously as at the first or second 

 day, and as they do still. By subtracting the times mentioned in the catalogue, 

 from any time after, it will be shown how long any of the bodies have conti- 

 nued their attractive virtue ; by which it will appear, that some of them have 

 not lost their attraction for more than 4 months : so that we have some reason 

 to believe, that we have now discovered that there is a perpetual attractive 

 power in all electric bodies, without exciting by either rubbing, beating, &c. 

 or any other attrition. But this will further appear by the following account of 

 the last two bodies mentioned in the catalogue. The cone of sulphur, N° IQ, 

 that was cast in a large drinking-glass, in about 2 hours after it v^as taken out 

 of the glass, attracted, and the glass attracted too, but at a small distance. 

 Next day the sulphur was taken out of the glass, and then it attracted strongly, 

 but there was now no perceivable attraction of the glass. Then the cone of 

 sulphur was set with its base on the lid of the fir box, where the other electric 

 bodies lay, and the glass whelmed over it. He examined it every day after, and 

 still found it to attract ; but finding the place not so convenient, having occa- 

 sion to look into the box often, he removed it to the table between the two 

 windows of his chamber, where it still continued, and whenever the glass is 

 taken off, it attracts at near as great a distance as the sulphur that is clothed 

 and shut up in the box. And though at first there was no attraction, when 

 the glass was taken off", yet he now finds, that in fair weather the glass also 

 attracts, but not at so great a distance as the sulphur, which never fails to at- 

 tract, let the wind or weather be ever so variable, as all the other bodies do; 

 Vol. VII. 3 Z 



