Theories of Electricity 129 



tion; that is, whatever quantity of electrical fire is thrown 

 in at the top an equal quantity goes out at the bottom.^ 

 To understand this, suppose the common quantity of 

 electricity in each part of the bottle, before the operation 

 begins, is equal to twenty; and at every stroke of the 

 tube, suppose a quantity equal to one is thrown in; then 

 after the first stroke, the quantity contained in the wire 

 and upper part of the bottle will be twenty-one, in the 

 bottom nineteen; after the second, the upper part will 

 have twenty-two, the lower eighteen, and so on, till, after 

 twenty strokes, the upper part will have a quantity of 

 electrical fire equal to forty, the lower part none; and 

 then the operation ends; for no more can be thrown into 

 the upper part, when no more can be driven out of the 

 lower part. If you attempt to throw more in, it is 

 spewed back through the wire or flies out in loud cracks 

 through the sides of the bottle. 



" The equilibrium cannot be restored in the bottle by 

 inward communication or contact of the parts, but it 

 must be done by a communication formed without the 

 bottle, between the top and the bottom by some non- 

 electric,^ touching or approaching both at the same time; 

 in which case it is restored with a violence and quick- 



^ " What is said here, and after, of the top and bottom of the bottle is true 

 of the inside and outside surfaces and should have been so expressed." 



^ The term " non-electric " is applied to a metal or other conductor of elec- 

 tricity. An " electric " is an insulator of electricity. 

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