VOL. XLI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TBANSACTIOKS. 31 J 



sometimes held under the cross line ; but they generally succeeded best when 

 the tube was held under the extremities of the pendulous wires, which in this 

 xjase separated much further, and kept their repulsive force much longer. 



Exper. 7. Mr. W. hung up two fragments of barometer tubes, each about 

 a foot long, by blue silk lines going through them, so that they hung parallel, 

 horizontal, at equal heights, and about one quarter of an inch asunder ; on 

 holding the excited tube above and under them, they manifestly receded from 

 each other. 



He suspended the same fragments of tubes by blue silk lines of equal length, 

 from a cross blue silk in a perpendicular position, each having a little red seal- 

 ing wax at the upper end, to hinder the strings from slipping off. The excited 

 tube being brought near them, they receded manifestly, especially at the lower 

 ends ; the distance from one another, when at rest, being about a quarter of 

 an inch. 



Carol. I . From the repulsive state of the pendulous threads, tied transversely 

 with two or more threads, and bending out from each other, where at liberty, 

 it follows that all the threads of a table-cloth, or other large piece of linen, 

 when made electrical, have a tendency to fly from each other : and conse- 

 quently, were the repulsive force strong enough, the whole would be dissolved, 

 or torn in pieces. A short thread of black silk, by repeated applications of the 

 tube, has separated into its smallest fibres. Whence is suggested more plainly, 

 than from any other known experiment, a reason for the dissolution of bodies 

 in their respective menstruums, viz. that the particles of the solvend having im- 

 bibed the particles of the menstruum, so as to be saturated with them, the 

 saturated particles become repulsive of each other, separate, and the mass flies 

 to pieces. 



And hence perhaps arises a reason, why particles of bodies specifically heavier 

 than the menstruums in which they are dissolved, are, after the dissolution and 

 dispersion, suspended all over the menstruum, viz. that they repel each other. 

 Attraction is insufficient; for parts attracted equally in all directions, are, in effect, 

 not attracted at all; and the imperfection of the fluid will not do; for if this oc- 

 casioned the suspension, striking or shaking the vessel would make them subside. 



Carol. 2. Hence we plainly see how heat may divide the particles of water with 

 greater or less force, in proportion to the degree of saturation, and throw them 

 into the air ; where they may continue to ascend, if at the same time they are 

 divided, they are expanded into little shells or bubbles, of a diameter large 

 enough to be specifically lighter than the lower air, as Dr. Halley has saga- 

 ciously conjectured. Or if the upper parts of the air, as being less saturated than 



