VOL. XLIV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TKANSACTIONS. 277 



4thly. It has been confirmed, by repeated comparisons, that a bar of iron 

 placed in the abovementioned curve, does not at all acquire more electricity, when 

 it is suspended in silken lines, than when it is held in the bare hand. Whence it 

 appears that, in this case, the contiguous non-electric bodies do neither partake 

 of, nor in any way absorb the electricity that has been communicated. 



Besides many strong exceptions to the rule laid down by Mons. du Fay, the 

 author adds another yet stronger, and indeed directly contrary to that rule; which 

 is, that the same phial of water, fitted with its wire, receives either no virtue at 

 all, or at least none that is sensible, so long as it is either placed on a stand of 

 glass that is very dry, or that it is suspended by a silken thread, while its wire rests 

 on the globe; and that, to make it receive the virtue, the part of the phial which 

 is below the surface of the water, must communicate with some body that is not 

 electric ; as is evident, when it is touched, while it rests on the stand of glass, 

 with the finger, for it then instantly becomes electric ; and the same also hap- 

 pens when it is touched with a piece of metal ; but not when touched with a dry 

 tube of glass. 



The electrical rests produce here on the bottle an effect so contrary to M. du 

 Fay's rule, that if one places a phial, perfectly well electrified, and which throws 

 out the pencil of fire copiously, on a dry stand of glass, or on a line of silk ; its 

 light immediately goes out, and its electricity is as it were laid to sleep. We may 

 then securely approach the finger to its wire, and no electrical sparks will come 

 from it. The author has even drawn out of it entirely both the wire and the 

 cork, and has kept it half an hour in his pocket, without destroying the electri- 

 city. But in this case we must only touch the wire, and not the phial itself; for 

 by touching the 2 at the same time, we return to the Leyden experiment ; but on 

 touching the phial only, the electricity revives in the wire, and the pencil of fire 

 displays itself again, provided we have not staid too long : but when the wire only 

 is touched, the body of the bottle becomes strongly electric, and draws to it, from 

 a considerable distance, any light substances. 



This last case gives room to an experiment that looks at first like magic : there 

 was hung up a little tinkling bell by a silver wire, at the height of 8 or 9 feet, and 

 there was placed on a glass stand well dried, a phial newly electrified ; the centre 

 of the bell, and that of the phial, were nearly in the same horizontal line ; but 

 the bell was 6 or 7 inches from the surface of the phial. Every thing being in 

 this state, the bell remained quite still when the stand was very dry ; but the in- 

 stant we either approach a finger, or any other non-electric body, to the wire of 

 the phial, the bell leaps to it : and we might begin again, and repeat the ex- 

 periment 20 times together, without having any occasion to new-electrify the 

 phial. 



With regard to the propagation of electricity, the velocity with which the 



