CAPACITY OF CONDUCTORS OF VARIABLE FORM AND EXTENSION. 



233 



Table II. 



Area = 75 square inches. 



54. At first, these results led me to believe, that the diminished intensity was 

 caused by the increased extent of ed^e acquired by the plate, when its area was ex- 

 tended in length ; but after a careful inquiry I found this was not the case : the 

 same plates formed into cylinders, either in the direction of their lengths or breadths, 

 evinced with the same quantity, precisely the same intensity, which may be con- 

 sidered as a somewhat novel result. The intensity of a sphere also, was found to be 

 the same as that of a plane circular area of the same superficial extent ; neither did 

 any differences arise in turning the plates into other figures approaching cylinders, 

 such as triangular and hexagonal prisms. The mere circumstance of the extent of 

 edge, therefore, has evidently no influence on the intensity : hence the increased ca- 

 pacity would seem to arise from some peculiar disposition of the electricity depend- 

 ing on the form c <he conductor ; it has accordingly been considered by Volta, to 

 consist in the removal of the electrical particles further without the sphere of each 

 other's influence. On reviewing these phenomena, we must therefore consider the peri- 

 meter as being merely a function of the peculiar kind of extension to which the given 

 area has been subjected, and by which the electrical particles have become so placed 

 in respect of each other, that their operation on external bodies is diminished. For 

 the sake of clearness, therefore, and to avoid a direct association of the cause of the 

 diminished intensity with the extent of edge acquired by the plate, it may be perhaps 

 advisable to consider the intensity as more immediately dependent on the form of the 

 respective plates, the area being constant ; which equally well coincides with the 

 results before deduced. 



55. The greatest intensity of a given quantity of electricity, disposed on a given 

 area, will appear, therefore, when the area is contained under a circle c, fig. 18 ; and 

 the least, when expanded into an indefinite right line, as is shown also by experi- 

 ment. 



56. The intensities of conductors being inversely as their perimeters, when the area 

 is constant, I thought it not unlikely that the intensity might also vary in an inverse 

 ratio of the area, when the perimeters remained the same. 



(p.) With a view of ascertaining this, I procured some additional plates, such as 

 mn,m n\ fig. 20, which were so constructed, that their perimeters did not materially 

 differ, whilst their areas greatly varied : these being submitted to experiment, as 



