408 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 175^. 



when it is brought nearer, they are seen to be agitated in a violent manner. If, 

 instead of the black, the white stocking be presented at the same distances, it 

 is found to have precisely the same effects, attracting and agitating the balls in 

 the very same manner; whence it appears, that whatever difference there was 

 between the electricity of the black and the white, under other circumstances, 

 they each of them acquire an equal degree of electricity, by being electrified 

 together. 



2^. — When the electrometer is supported by glass, and the white stocking is 

 presented to it, it first attracts the balls, and afterwards repels them ; when token 

 away, it leaves them in a repulsive state with regard to each other ; when brought 

 back, it repels them as before. If, instead of the white, the black be now pre- 

 sented, the balls are immediately attracted, soon after again repelled, and left 

 once more in a repulsive state with regard to each other. If the white be again 

 presented, the same train of effects takes place as before ; and so on, alternately, 

 as in the case of the clear and opaque glass tubes, when excited: the white 

 stocking answering precisely to the clear, and the black to the opaque tube, and 

 acting the one positively, the other negatively, at full as great a distance, and as 

 forcibly, as the tubes. 



3^. — Both the stockings, when held at a distance from one another, appear 

 inflated to such a degree, that, when highly electrified, they give the entire 

 shape of the leg; and when brought near the face, or any naked part of the 

 body, there is a sensation felt as if a cool wind was blowing on that part. When 

 the two white, or the two black, are held together by the extremities, they repel 

 one another, and form an angle, seemingly of 30 or 35 degrees. 



40 — When a white and a black stocking are presented to each other, they 

 mutually attract, with a force answerable to the degree of electricity they have 

 acquired; when brought within the distance of 3 feet, they usually incline to- 

 wards each other: within '2^ or 2 feet, they catch hold of each other; and when 

 brought nearer, they rush together with surprising violence. As they approach, 

 their inflation gradually subsides; and their attraction of foreign objects dimi- 

 nishes: when they meet, they flatten, and join as close together, as if they were 

 so many folds of silk ; and then the balls of the electrometer are not affected at 

 the distance of a foot, nor even of a few inches at certain times. But what 

 appears most extraordinary is, that when they are separated, and removed at a 

 sufiicient distance from each other, their electricity does not appear to have been 

 in the least impaired by the shock they had in meeting. They are again inflated, 

 again attract, and repel, and are as ready to rush together as before. When 

 this experiment is performed with two black stockings in one hand, and two 

 white in the other, it exhibits a very curious spectacle; the repulsion of those of 

 the same colour, and the attraction of those of different colours, throws them 



