On Electric Phenomena. 9 



comes non-electric. If we touch the second body with the 

 finger during the time it is under the influence of the first, 

 then the positive electricity escapes into the ground, the ne- 

 gative, on the contrary, which is bound (or as it is technically 

 expressed "latent") by the first body, cannot escape. If we 

 break off the connection with the ground, and remove both 

 bodies from one another, than the second, through the in- 

 fluence of the first, is charged with electricity, without the 

 first having lost the least of its own. This is caUed electro- 

 motion through decomposition. 



From the above described process, the second body re- 

 ceives contiQually the opposite kind of electricity to the first 

 one. Both kinds can, however, be kept apart. We wiU take 

 three bodies. A, B, C, of which A is charged with positive 

 electricity, B and C are non-electric. We will place all three 

 in a row, but so that B and C touch each other, while A 

 stands at a short distance from B. Through the positive 

 electricity of A, the negative electricity which is in the other 

 two bodies, wiU now be decomposed. The negative electricity 

 is attracted and accumulates in B, on the other hand, the po- 

 sitive is repelled and collects in C. If we now remove B and 

 C a Kttle from one another, then the decomposed electricities 

 cannot unite again, and B and C are charged through de- 

 composition. But as soon as we bring them both together, 

 if it be but for a moment, the electricities unite and they are 

 both once more non-electric. 



From the decomposing power of electricity results a large 

 number of phenomena, and many apparatuses are constructed 

 to exemplify them, of which we will mention some of the 

 most important. First we must remark, that the attraction 

 of non-electric bodies through electricity can only be produced 



,(131) 



