Electrical Phenomena in Houses. — 63 
temperature of 70° F. The experiments were performed by the 
ne 22 and lady of the house and Prof. Loomis who put 
— slippers. After walking rapidly through the parlors 
with a shuffling motion, very bright electrical sparks were ex- 
hibited when the hand was presented to the chandeliers or other 
good conductors communicating with the ground. Gas was ig- 
nited at one of the burners by a spark from a key in the hand 
of the lady, and sulphuric ether casa we by the spark passing 
from her finger to the liquid which I held in a metallic cup in 
electrical connection with the ails The spark was made to 
pass between two small insulated brass balls, with a view to 
measure its length. The greatest length attained was one-fourth 
of an inch. The spark exhibited a beautiful appearance in a 
darkened room, when the fingers were brought near to the wall- — 
paper, dispersing itself through the space of a foot or more over 
the gilded ornaments of the paper. On the evening of the 5th 
of March, the coldest day of the season, the experiments were 
repeated in the same rooms, when a sertsible increase of electri- 
ese phenomena were similar to s as I often witnessed 
during the winters of 1854-5 at the Crrland Female Seminary, 
located in the southeast quarter of the city of BoC cago Ohio. 
The building is three stories high, of brick, with a sandstone 
basement, and is warmed by three furnaces sup lied “wah the 
ordinary bituminous coal of southeastern Ohio, the fires declin 
_ ing but not becoming extinct during the night. The tempera: 
ture of the rooms v bove 80° 
but rarely falling below 60°, even during the nao “The rooms 
in which the electrical manifestations were con 
upo’ n re y iscernible, 
In the parlors, sc pe St manifested during dry cold weather 
at all eas of the day, but much more strikingly in the evening © 
after the young ladies had spent an hour in recreation and dan- 
cing. On such occasions the intensity of the spark was such as 
readily inflamed ether and pulv verized resin, and measured re- 
peony one-half inch, passing between pacsletad balls to the — 
register, which was in good electrical communication 
bia) 
