55-2 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1774. 



distance of half an inch. Then taking off the electricity from all the bodies 

 concerned, I blew the column of water out of the capillary tube, replaced it in 

 the bucket, pointing towards the funnel as before, and worked the machine 

 again, to try whether the electricity, issuing from the syphon, and passing 

 through the air, might not electrify all the bodies, so as to separate the balls, 

 without the jet of water ; but no such event happened, I then replaced it, 

 with the jet falling into the funnel as before ; when it succeeded. I then tried 

 it a second time, without the jet of water ; and it failed. I thus repeated the 

 experiment alternately, with, and without the jet, taking off the electricity of 

 the apparatus carefully between the trials ; till I was perfectly satisfied that the 

 jet of water, received into the funnel, and thence falling into the insulated dish 

 below, was the medium by which the balls, hanging from the end of the wire 

 placed in it, became electrified. Hence I inferred, that vapour from boiling 

 water, &c. must also be a conductor of electricity, though probably in a less 

 degree, as being more dissipated. Having since repeated this experiment by 

 receiving the electrified jet immediately into a large insulated dish, I observed the 

 effect to be much greater. /;'j'.v aiii .laotutm bnR booi lot xi, 



Exper. 1. Having procured a tin vessel, somewhat resembling an eolipile, or 

 chymical retort ; I placed it over a small lamp, on my prime-conductor, (fig. 2,) 

 and filled it about half full of boiling water. The nose of it was so situated, as 

 to throw the electrified drops into an insulated dish, furnished with balls, as in 

 the former experiments. After the water had been some time poured in, and I 

 imagined enough had evaporated to have produced some drops in the neck ; I 

 examined the lip, to see whether any descended, but saw none. However, on 

 giving the machine a turn or two, I was very agreeably surprized to see the 

 electric streams issue exactly as from a capillary tube ; and a few drops having 

 fallen into the dish, the balls became electrical, and were attracted by my finger, 

 at the distance of a half or three quarters of an inch. In a few turns more of 

 the globe, they separated half an inch. I then threw out the water ; and, 

 clearing the vessel of its vapour, I remounted it on its stand, pointing towards 

 the dish as before, to try whether the sharp edge on the lip of the vessel would 

 not electrify the air sufficiently to separate the balls, as the evaporated water had 

 done. I turned the winch a long time for this purpose ; but the balls never 

 diverged at all. I then poured in the boiling water a second time ; and, when 

 the drops began to fall, the 4th turn separated the balls ; and the 1 0th eaused 

 them to diverge to the distance pf half an inch ; and in this state of repulsion 

 they continued a considerable time after I had ceased to work the machine. I 

 then took off the electricity with my finger, and again cleared the vessel of its 

 water, &c. and having replaced it with the point as before, I worked the machine 

 again as usual. The air was now become in some measure electrical ; for, at the 



