VOL. XLIV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. IQQ 



wrapt up in any thing, may have deprived it of its power. The cupboard is small, 

 and never cold. Whereas his stick of wax kept in his desk, not wrapt, will at- 

 tract a thread at any time, without rubbing at all. 



Wanting to try if he could not kindle spirits of wine with an icicle ; but not 

 being able to get one, he attempted it with a thick piece of ice, and immediately 

 succeeded, in the presence of 7 or 8 persons ; and the sparks of jfire from the ice, 

 when the finger of a non-electric person was brought near it, were as large and 

 as powerful as any he ever saw ; so that their power is no ways diminished by the 

 coldness of the ice. 



By accident one of the gentlemen approaching the electrified person with his 

 hand, near his shoulder, the gentleman felt a very pungent stroke on his flesh, 

 through his coat and waistcoat, which were both cloth. This was repeated se- 

 veral times, and in every one's opinion, on whom trial was made, the repulsive 

 stroke was as smart as it is usual on the end of the finger, when nothing inter- 

 venes ; and the sensation continued as long. 



Dr. M. took a clamp of iron, such as is used for heating box- irons for smooth- 

 ing linen clothes ; and having heated it red-hot, applied it to the spirits of wine, 

 as he stood on the cake of wax electrified, holding it in a pair of tongs. But he 

 could not kindle the spirits during the time the redness continued in the clamp ; 

 but as soon as that disappeared, and it began to look blackish, the spirits were 

 kindled as usual. 



On the Light caused by Quicksilver shaken in a Glass Tube, proceeding from 

 Electricity. By Mr. Trembley, F.R.S. Dated the Hague, 4th Feb. 1745. 



N.s. N°478, p. 58. 



Mr. I'Allamand inclosed some mercury in a tube close-stopped ; and, when he 

 afterwards rubbed this tube, it gave a great deal more light, than when the same 

 had no mercury in it. When this tube has been rubbed, after raising succes- 

 sively its extremities, that the mercury might flow from one end to the other, a 

 light is seen serpenting all along the tube ; that is, the mercury, as it runs along, 

 is all luminous. 



Mr. I'Allamand then made the mercury run in the same manner along the tube 

 without rubbing it, and it still gave some light, but much less than before. This 

 last experiment persuaded him, that the friction of the mercury against the glass 

 might electrify that glass, like the rubbing of the hand. And he has been con- 

 firmed in the same notion by another experiment : he brought some down near 

 to the tube, and then made the mercury run from one end to the other; and the 

 down was attracted, as the mercury in its motion passed by it. 



These experiments he has repeated, and varied several ways ; and they have 

 led him to conclude, that the phosphorus of the barometer, known a great while. 



