VOL. XLIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 155 



It has likewise been fired from the handle of a sword held in the hand of a third 

 person. 



He not only fired Frobenius's phlogiston, rectified spirit, and common proof 

 spirit, but also sal volatile oleosum, spirit of lavender, dulcified spirit of nitre, 

 Peony-water, Daffy's elixir, Helvetius's styptic, and some other mixtures, where 

 the spirit has been very considerably diluted ; likewise distilled vegetable oils, such 

 as that of turpentine, lemon, orange-peels, and juniper; and even those which 

 are specifically heavier than water, as oil of sassafras; also resinous substances, 

 such as balsam capaivi, and turpentine : all which send forth, when warmed, an 

 inflammable vapour. 



But expressed vegetable oils, as those of olives, linseed, and almonds, as well 

 as tallow, all whose vapours are uninflammable, he has not been able yet to fire ; 

 but these indeed will not fire on the application of lighted paper. Besides, if 

 these last would fire with lighted paper, unless their vapours were inflammable, 

 he can scarcely conceive they would fire by electricity ; because, in firing spirits, 

 &c. he always perceives, that the electricity snaps before it comes in contact with 

 their surfaces, and therefore only fires their inflammable vapours. 



There is considerable difficulty in firing electrics per se, such as turpentine 

 and balsam capaivi, by the repulsive power of electricity ; because, in this case, 

 these substances will not permit the electricity to pass through them : therefore, 

 when you would have this experiment succeed, the finger of the person who is 

 to fire them, is to be applied as near to the edge as possible of these substances 

 when warmed in a spoon, that the flashes from the spoon (for these substances 

 will emit none) may snap, where they are spread the thinnest, and then fire 

 their effluvia. This experiment, as well as several others, serves to confute that 

 opinion, which has prevailed with many, that the electricity floats only on the 

 surfaces of bodies. 



If an electrical cake be dipped in water, it is thereby made a conductor of 

 electricity ; the water hanging about it transmitting the electrical effluvia in such 

 a manner, that a person standing on it can by no means be electrified enough to 

 attract the leaf gold at the smallest distance; though the person standing on 

 the same cake when dry, attracted a piece of fine thread hanging at the distance 

 of 2 feet from his finger. We must here observe, that the cake being of an 

 unctuous substance, the water will no where lie uniformly on it, but adhere in 

 separate moleculae ; so that, in this instance, the electricity jumps from one par- 

 ticle of water to another, till the whole is dissipated. 



If two persons stand on electrical cakes at about a yard distance from each 

 other, one of which persons, for the sake of distinction, we will call a, the other 

 B ; if A, when electrified, touch b, a loses almost all its electricity at that touch 

 only, which is received by b, and stopped by the electrical cake : if a be imme- 



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