io8 Nichols: Franklin's 



extraordinary effects obtained with this simple device 

 were of a character to further appeal to the imagination 

 and to intensify public interest in electricity. Experi- 

 mentation became the popular fad of the time; the elec- 

 trical machine and its accessories were regarded as a 

 necessary part of the equipment of people of fashion. 

 Electricity became for the time being the amusement of 

 the leisure class as well as the subject of study for 

 savants. The feature which especially excited interest 

 was doubtless the violence of the shock felt by a person 

 through whose body the discharge of a Leyden jar took 

 place and the fact that the effect could be imparted to 

 a number of individuals simultaneously. The Abbe 

 NoUet dernonstrated this fact by two famous experi- 

 ments. In the first instance he imparted the shock of 

 a Leyden jar to i8o of the King's guards for the edifi- 

 cation of Louis XV and subsequently to the monks of 

 the Carthusian monastery in Paris; for which purpose 

 all the members of that great establishment formed a 

 line nine hundred toises, or about an English mile, in 

 length. 



The efifect upon the public mind of the discovery of 

 the Leyden jar may be compared with that produced 

 in our own time by the announcement of the X-rays, of 

 liquid air, or of radium; but the interest excited was 

 much more general and more intense and, owing to the 

 simple nature of the apparatus necessary for repeating 



