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Received March 8, 1 770. 
XIX. j Experiments and Observations on 
Charcoal : By Jofeph Prieftley, LL. D. 
F. R. S. 
Read April 5, \ MONG the original experiments) 
1/0 _/V publifhed in the Hiftory of EleCtri- 
city, was an account of the conducting power of 
charcoal. This fubftance had been confidered by 
electricians, in no other light than that of more per- 
fectly baked wood, which is known to be no con- 
ductor of eleCtricity. 1 have even heard of attempts 
being made to excite it 3 and though thofe attempts 
were ineffectual, the failure of fuccefs was attributed 
to other caufes than that of charcoal being no 
eleCtric fubftance 3 fo fixed was the perfuafion, that 
water and metals were the only conducting fub- 
ftances in nature. The confideration of the che- 
mical properties of charcoal, which are, in many 
refpeCts, remarkably different from thofe of the 
wood from which it is made, might have led them 
to fufpeCt, that fince, after its being reduced to a 
coal, it was become quite another thing from what 
it was before, it might poffibly differ from wood in 
•E e 2 this 
