[ 33 ] 



PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. VOL. 61, 1771, 

 pp. 584-677 



An attempt to explain some of the Principal Phenomena 

 of Electricity, by means of an Elastic Fluid 



Read Dec. 19, 1771 and Jan. 9, 1772. 

 {See Table of Contents at the beginning of this volume.} 



[PART I.] 



i] Since I first wrote the following paper, I find that this way of 

 accounting for the phenomena of electricity is not new. ./Epinus, in his 

 Tentamen Theories Electricitatis et Magnetismi*, has made use of the same, 

 or nearly the same hypothesis that I have; and the conclusions he draws 

 from it agree nearly with mine, as far as he goes. However, as I have 

 carried the theory much farther than he has done, and have considered 

 the subject in a different, and, I flatter myself, in a more accurate manner, 

 I hope the Society will not think this paper unworthy of their acceptance. 



2] The method I propose to follow is, first, to lay down the hypothesis ; 

 next, to examine by strict mathematical reasoning, or at least, as strict 

 reasoning as the nature of the subject will admit of, what consequences 

 will flow from thence ; and lastly, to examine how far these consequences 

 agree with such experiments as have yet been made on this subject. In 

 a future paper, I intend to give the result of some experiments I am 

 making, with intent to examine still further the truth of this hypothesis, 

 and to find out the law of the electric attraction and repulsion. 



HYPOTHESIS. 



3] There is a substance, which I call the electric fluid, the particler 

 of which repel each other and attract the particles of all other mattes 

 with a force inversely as some less power of the distance than the cube : 

 the particles of all other matter also, repel each other, and attract those 

 of the electric fluid, with a force varying according to the same power of 

 the distances. Or, to express it more concisely, if you look upon the 

 electric fluid as matter of a contrary kind to other matter, the particles 

 of all matter, both those of the electric fluid and of other matter, repel 

 particles of the same kind, and attract those of a contrary kind, with a 

 force inversely as some less power of the distance than the cube. 



* [Petropoli, 1759.] 



c. p. i. * 



