328 N0T TW0 ELECTRIC FLUIJ>S. 



II. 



Electric Attractions and Repulsions are not explained in a 

 Satisfactory Manner in the Hypothesis of Two Fluids, 

 By J. C. Delametherie *. 



Electrical at- " JLLECTRICAL attractions and repulsions," says the 

 ^puisions^id author + of f ' 9 Elementary Treatise on Physics, vol. I, 

 to be easily ex- p. 590, 2ded., " form oneof those subjects, that have most 

 supposition of en g a g e d the attention of philosophers, and have most em- 

 two fluids, barrassed those, who have endeavoured to refer to the ac- 

 tion of a single fluid two diametrically opposite effects, 

 which frequently succeed each other very rapidly in the 

 same body. But if we admit the combined action of two 

 fluids, the theory acquires such a happy simplicity, that 

 the simple enunciation of the hypothesis seems to be a con- 

 cise explanation of the phenomena. 



" Mutual repulsion of two bodies, the electricities of 

 which are homogeneal. 

 Instance in re- '■ § 557 '. If we suppose in the first place two bodies, 

 pulsion. e ach electrified by an additional portion of vitreous or re- 



sinous electricity, that has been transmitted to it, we see 

 instantly what must take place; since this principle, that 

 bodies animated with the same kind of electricity repel 

 each other, and that bodies solicited by different electricities 

 attract each other, is only as it were a literal translation of 

 that other fundamental principle, that the particles of each 

 of the component fluids act on one another by repellent 

 forces, and exert attractive forces on the particles of the 

 other fluid. 

 This explained " § 558. This however requires some details, which 

 experimentally. w j{i fi nc j their place in the exposition we are about to give 

 of the means, that may be employed to prove this principle 

 by experiment. Let A B, PL VIII, Fig. 2, be two balls 

 of pith of elder, or any other conducting matter, sus- 

 pended by threads at a small distance from each other, and 

 to which the vitreous electricity has been communicated. 

 The fluids surrounding these balls mutually repel each other; 



* Journ. de Phys. vol. LXV, p. 315. | Mr. Hauy. 



and 



