110 
by a communication without ; though the A/enum presses violently 
to expand and the hungry vacuum seems to attract as violently in 
order to be filled.”’ 
Again, Franklin was the first to prove that the phenomena of 
condensation have their seat in the dielectric and not in the metal- 
lic coatings. ‘‘ The whole force of the bottle and power of giving 
a shock,’’ he says, ‘‘is in THE GLASS ITSELF; the non-electrics, in 
contact with the two surfaces, serving only to give and receive to 
and from the several parts of the glass; that is, to give to one side 
and take away from the other.’’? This opinion he supports by 
striking and conclusive experiments, ‘‘It is amazing,’’ he con- 
tinues, ‘‘ to observe in how small a portion of glass a great electri- 
cal force may lie. A thin glass bubble, about an inch diameter, 
weighing only six grains, being half filled with water, partly gilt 
on the outside and furnished with a wire hook, gives, when electri- 
fied, as great a shock as a man can well bear. As the glass is thick- 
est near the orifice, I suppose the lower half—which, being gilt, 
was electrified and gave the shock—did not exceed two grains; for 
it appeared, when broke, much thinner than the upper half.”’.... 
“‘ Allowing that there is no more electrical fire in a bottle after 
charging than before, how great must be the quantity in this small 
portion of glass! It seems as if it were of its very substance and 
essence. Perhaps if that due quantity of electrical fire, so obsti- 
nately retained by glass, could be separated from it, it would no 
longer be glass; it might lose its transparency, or its brittleness, or 
its elasticity. Experiments may possibly be invented hereafter to 
discover this.’’ (Can we state to-day, in any clearer language, the 
electrical condition in the Leyden jar? 
At the close of this investigation, he writes as follows: ‘‘ Cha- 
grined a little that we have been hitherto able to produce nothing in 
this way of use to mankind; and the hot weather coming on, when 
electrical experiments are not so agreeable, it is proposed to put an 
end to them for this season somewhat humorously in a party of 
pleasure on the banks of Skuy/ki/. Spirits, at the same time, are 
to be fired by a spark sent from side to side through the river, with- 
out any other conductor than the water; an experiment which we 
some time since: performed to the amazement of many. A turkey 
is to be killed for our dinner by the e/ectrica/ shock and roasted by 
the electrical jack before a fire kindled by the electrified bottle ; 
when the healths of all the famous electricians in Lxgland, Holland, 
