410 I'HILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO J 759. 



to a fresh pit of the stocking, the same phenomenon is repeated, till you have 

 traversed the whole length of the stocking, which, when the finger moves slowly, 

 usually yields 8 or 10 distinct discharges, before it is divested of its electricity. 

 With regard to the white stocking, the same appearances hold, but with this 

 difference, that instead of sparks of fire issuing from the finger, a little globule 

 of white or bluish light is seen at the point of it; and when the electricity is 

 strong, that little body of light seems to break in an explosion between the 

 stocking and the finger ; and rather a hissing than a crackling noise is heard. 



7°. — The electrical phial may be charged by the stockings, either positively or 

 negatively, according as the wire from the neck of the phial is presented to the 

 white or the black; and in the one or the other case, the hissing, or the crack- 

 ling noise, is louder than when any common wire, or non-electric body, is pre- 

 sented: but if the electricity of the white stocking be thrown into the phial, 

 and on that the electricity of the black, or vice vers^; in that case, the phial will 

 not be electrified at all. 



The charging of the phial was among the first of Mr. S.'s experiments with 

 electrified stockings. By some trials he made in the month of December last, 

 he found it would succeed. One frosty evening in that month, having thrown 

 into a small phial, filled with quicksilver, the electricity of one black stocking, 

 he received from the explosion a smart blow on his finger. With the electricity 

 of 2 stockings, the blow reached both his elbows; and by the means of 4, he 

 kindled spirits of wine in a tea-spoon, which he held in his hand, and at the 

 same time felt the blow from the elbows to the breast. It may not, however, 

 be improper to observe, that the electricity, in this case, was excited by means 

 of the leg. 



• From what has been said, it is evident that all the remarkable appearances of 

 electricity, hitherto discovered, may be exhibited by a simple apparatus of black 

 and white silk. But this is not all: in the course of the experiments something 

 curious has occurred, of which no notice had been taken by others: viz. a strong 

 cohesion produced by electricity. 



Paper hi. — Of Electrical Cohesion. 

 By experience Mr. S. found that the same pair of stockings did not always do 

 equally well, even independently of the weather; and that, by being too fre- 

 quently electrified at a time, their virtue appeared to diminish. He therefore 

 judged it proper to be provided with changes of pairs; and that there might be 

 the greater conformity between the experiments, he chose them as exactly as 

 possible of the same size and substance. The sort he fixed on, was what is 

 called half gauze; the weight of the white stocking, at an average, 18 dwt. JO 

 gr. but when dyed black, 1 oz. 1 dwt. the weight being increased, by the dying 



