230 Dr. Hare on the Theories of Electrical Phenomena. 
Art. XXVI.—Objections to the Theories severally of Franklin, 
Dufay and Ampére, with an Effort to explain Blectrical Phe- 
nomena by Statical or Undulatory Polarization ;* by Roser 
Hare, M.D., Emeritus Professor of Chemistry in the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania.t 
a 
1. Ir appears, from the experiments of Wheatstone, that the 
discharge of a Leyden jar, by means of a copper wire, takes place 
within a time so small, that were the transfer of a fluid from the 
positive to the negative surface requisite for its accomplishment, 
a current having a velocity exceeding two hundred thousand 
miles in a second would be necessary. 
2. The only causes for the velocity of an electric current, ac- 
cording to Franklin, are the repulsion between the particles of 
the electric fluid, of which it has been assumed to consist, and 
the attraction between those particles and other matter. ‘These 
forees are alledged to concur in distributing the supposed fluid 
throughout space ; whether otherwise void, or partially occupied 
by conducting solids or fluids. ence, when between two or 
, surfaces, or conducting masses, there is an unequal 
distribution of the electric fluid, the equilibrium is restored when- 
ever a communication is opened, by means of a sufficiently con- 
ducting medium. Agreeably to this view of the subject, there 
ms to 
however the subtilty of the supposed electric fluid may exceed 
that of any gas, there seems to be an analogy as respects the pro- 
cesses of diffusion which must prevail. But on opening a com- 
munication between cavities in which any aériform fluid exists, 
in different degrees of condensation; evidently there must be a 
diminution of density, and consequently of velocity, in the re- 
sulting current, proportionally as the excess diminishes; so that 
GA DE 8. 
. . 
cies of polarity. tis word polarity conveys the idea that two terminations in 
with the particles of adjacent bodies, or those in the surrounding medium. Under 
is said to be polarized, or in a state of polarization. 
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