ELECTRICITY ON VEGETATION. 



43 



houses in his Lordship's garden at Hawkstone, in which the con- 

 venience of a dry warm room attached was obtained ; in this 

 room, which was in fact part of the storehouse, boarded over 

 above the furnace, a powerful cylinder electrical machine was 

 arranged. The cylinder of the machine was about 20 inches by 

 16 inches, and was very well insulated, so that although the 

 room was not always so dry as might have been wished, the 

 machine always gave abundance of electricity even in wet and 

 damp weather. Stout glass tubes of about 5 feet long passed 

 through the back wall of this room into the grape-house, the 

 tubes projecting several inches from the wall on either side into 

 the store-room and grape-house. The walls were nearly 4 feet 

 thick, being double, and containing flues. Through these tubes 

 copper-wires of the 12th of an inch in diameter were carried, 

 one end of each being connected with one of the two conductors 

 of the electrical machine, the other ends of the wires being 

 fastened to two rings of wire placed on the top of the separate 

 stools well insulated with glass legs a foot high. Each con- 

 ductor of the machine was thus connected with, and in fact made 

 one with an insulated stool in the grape-house, the stools being 

 placed at a distance of some feet from each other, and the wire 

 suspended from the framework of the house by loops of white 

 silk. When thus arranged, sharp and powerful sparks could be 

 drawn in abundance from any part of the wires or from the tops 

 of the stools when the machine was worked ; whilst the latter 

 was so completely apart from the house and plants as not to be 

 at all affected by the moisture &c. necessarily present in the 

 grape-house. It was also found that a pot of moderately moist 

 earth containing a growing plant, when placed upon the wire 

 circle attached to the top of each stool, became thoroughly 

 charged with electricity when the machine was worked, and 

 gave abundant sparks to the hand or a piece of metal. 



The first experiment was made in October, 1845. Four sets 

 of pots were taken, in all respects perfectly alike, each set con- 

 sisting of five pots containing, 1, young plants of French beans ; 

 2, young plants of the common scarlet geranium ; 3, young 

 plants of strawberry ; 4, seeds of wheat ; and 5th, seeds of 

 mustard and cress. One series was placed on the wire-ring on 

 the insulated stool connected with the positive conductor of the 

 machine ; a second on that connected with the negative ; a third 

 on a similar stool of wood wholly uninsulated, placed near the 

 insulated stools as a standard of comparison, whilst the last was 

 sunk in tan and exposed to the influence of bottom heat. The 

 experiment was carried on for four weeks, the two stools being 

 strongly electrified four hours a day, namely, from ten to twelve 

 in the morning, and from two till four in the afternoon ; during 



