;C 59 ] 
there was a fmall dlfperfion from every part of the 
wire, but by no means fo great as it would have been 
if it had been melted, or only heated to a greater 
degree. 
By a confiderable number of trials I found, that a 
greater force of explofion would move light bodies at 
a greater diftance ; but the fmaller the bodies were, 
the lefs was this difference ; fo that I fuppofed, that 
if they had no weight at all, they would, probably, 
be moved at the fame diftance by the explofion from 
any quantity of coated furface, charged equally high ; 
but there was a great difference in the w'eights re- 
moved by different forces at the fame diftance. 
Placing the fame piece of cork at the fame diftance 
from the place of explofion, I found that the difeharge 
of one jar removed it _*-th of an inch, two jars i^th, 
three i -^.ths, and four about two inches ; fo that I do 
not wonder at very heavy bodies being moved from 
their places, and to confiderable diftances, by ftrong 
flafhes of lightning. 
That the immediate caufe of this difperfion of bo- 
dies in the neighbourhood of eledtrical explofions is 
not their being fuddenly charged with a quantity of 
eledlric matter, and therefore flying from others that 
are equally charged with it, is, I think, evident from 
the following experiments and obfervations. I 
never obferved the leaft fenfible attradlion of thefe 
light bodies to the brafs rods, through which the ex- 
plofion paffed, or to the eledtric matter paffing be- 
tween them, previous to thisrepulflon, though I ufed 
feveral methods which could not have failed to ftiew 
it, if there had been any fuch thing. Sometimes I 
fufpended them in fine filken firings, and obferved 
I 2 that 
