VOL. XLIV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIOXS. 265 



the mean while, takes up on the point of a knife likewise, a quantity of saw- 

 dust, and holds it under the flat piece of iron, at about an inch distance. 



Exper. A. — The most surprising of all, is Mr. Muschenbroeck's experiment, 

 improved by M. le Monnier. A musket-barrel open at both ends, is suspended pa- 

 rallel to the horizon, by silken threads within reach : and at the breech end, 

 about 3 inches from the extremity, is hung, by a ring of iron worked into the 

 barrel itself, a small iron chain about half a foot in length. A glass phial, re- 

 sembling in size and shape a common vinegar-cruet, is then prepared, full of 

 water and well corked, with an iron wire running through the cork almost to 

 the bottom, and emerging 2 or 3 inches above it, out of the top of the phial. 

 The head of this wire is bent, to catch in the lowest link of the chain ; and is to 

 be there suspended, when it has been electrified. From the mouth of the bar- 

 rel, which is pointed in a line parallel to the equatorial plane of the revolving 

 spheroid, comes a long iron wire, inserted into the barrel itself, as far as one- 

 third of its length, and thence proceeding till it touches the glass spheroid ; to a 

 contact with which it is determined by one of the silken loops mentioned above. 

 Every thing being thus disposed, the gun-barrel is to be electrified by repeated 

 revolutions of the glass spheroid ; which is to be in a continual contact with the 

 long wire that proceeds from it. The phial is, at the same time, to be electri- 

 fied by the operator, who takes hold of the body of the bottle, and applies to the 

 electrifying spheroid the bent extremity of that wire, which passes from near the 

 bottom of the phial through the cork, as described above. When the phial is 

 sufficiently electrified, which will be done in 8 or 10 revolutions of the spheroid ; 

 the person who has courage enough to suflfer the experiment, grasps the bottom 

 of the electrified phial with one hand, and with the other touches the gun-barrel. 

 At that instant, a great part of the nervous system receives a shock so violent, 

 that it would force the strongest man to quit his hold, and turn him half- 

 round. 



Exper. 5. — When the phial has been sufficiently electrified as above, the 

 whole company join hands ; the operator at one extremity of the line grasps the 

 bottom of the electrified phial, and the person at the other extremity touches 

 the wire, which rises above the cork. At that instant, the whole company re- 

 ceives a shock, resembling that in the experiment of the gun-barrel, but not so 

 strong ; for it seems not at all to extend beyond the elbows. This is the experi- 

 ment, which Abbe Nollet performed on 1 80 of the guards, before the king, who 

 were all so sensible of it at the same instant, that the surprize caused them all 

 to spring up at once. 



Exper. 6. — Another experiment with the electrified phial consists, first, in 

 placing a wire fixed in a pedestal, erect in a basin of water, the head of which 

 wire is bent, and rises 3 or 4 inches above the level of the water ; and then, in 



VQL. IX. Mm ; 



