THE SMALLEST WORKERS 



and which differs in general from other attractions and 

 repulsions by its immediate diminution or cessation 

 when the bodies, acting on each other, come into con- 

 tact, or are touched by other bodies. ... In general, 

 a body is said to be electrified when it contains, either 

 as a whole or in any of its parts, more or less of the elec- 

 tric fluid than is natural to it . . .In this common neu- 

 tral state of all bodies, the electrical fluid, which is 

 everywhere present, is so distributed that the various 

 forces hold each other exactly in equilibrium and the 

 separate results are destroyed, unless we choose to con- 

 sider gravitation itself as arising from a comparatively 

 slight inequality between the electrical attractions and 

 repulsions." 



The salient and striking feature of this theory, it will 

 be observed, is that the electrical fluid, under normal 

 conditions, is supposed to be incorporated everywhere 

 with the substance of every material in the world. It 

 will be observed that nothing whatever is postulated as 

 to the nature or properties of this fluid beyond the fact 

 that its particles repel each other and are attracted by 

 the particles of common matter; it being also postulated 

 that the particles of common matter likewise repel each 

 other under normal conditions. 



At the time when Franklin propounded his theory, 

 there was a rival theory before the world, which has con- 

 tinued more or less popular ever since, and which is 

 known as the two-fluid theory of electricity. According 

 to this theory, there are two uncreated and indestruct- 

 ible fluids which produce electrical effects. One fluid 

 may be called positive, the other negative. The par- 



