[ 417 ] 
proved that the fufion had been compleat. This 
experiment I made in the prefence of Mr. 
Fergufon, f. r. s. Mr. William Canton, Mr. Bell, 
and Mr. Marfham, who all acknowledged it per- 
fectly fatisfaCtory. Having mentioned the refult 
of this experiment, and the method of making 
it, to Mr. nairne; he hath fince repeated it with 
equal fuccefs. 
Being informed, by Mr. William Canton, 
that his brother, Mr. Thomas Canton, had, in 
preparing a dried cork for an experiment in elec- 
tricity, obferved fome appearances which in- 
duced him to believe, that the cork had been 
made electrical, by only cutting it with a pen- 
knife, and that on examination he found it really 
was fo; I made the following experiment. 
EXPERIMENT VIII. 
I made a long cork perfectly dry, and held one 
end of it very near the fire, till it began to burn. 
At the fame time, I held a fmall, fine-toothed file, in 
the clear part of the fire, till that alfo, had become 
very dry, and rather hot. Then, having filed off 
the end of the cork, I applied it to a pair of neat, 
light pith-balls ; when it attracted them both* 
and raifed them perpendicularly, as high as the 
firings would permit. Having electrified the balls 
by excited amber, the cork would increafe their 
divergence from one, to near two inches j or it 
would repel them at an inch diftance, fo as to 
drive them one inch and an half out of the per- 
pendicular. Electrifying the balls by excited 
glafs, thefe appearances were direCtly reverfed. 
The cork therefore had parted with its eleCtricity 
Vol.LXIV. Hhh • to 
