Obfervations in Electricity. 131 
electrified, or to the infulated rubber of the eleCtrical 
machine.) That it may be faid to reiide in vegetables, and 
is extracted together with their oil ; that in fermentation, 
effervefcence, and putrefaction, it flies off in the phlo* 
giftic vapour thence arifing (fee note 1 . at the conclulion 
of this paper); that in diftillation it is difengaged and 
brought over in an ardent fpirit, in which it refides, re- 
taining its original properties in a purer bafe ; that, fince by 
the collifion of flint, fteel, See. aCtual fire is inftantaneoufly 
produced (as in the inftance of the dry axle of a carriage, 
which, by the friction of the nave againft it, foon takes 
fire) fo by the friction of other bodies, which by long per- 
feverance would produce the fame effeCt, this latent fire 
may be firft excited, and its appearances, though unob- 
ferved, be thofe we term eleCtrical. A wind-mill, when 
it works under the break (as the millers term it when no 
iron is concerned) foon catches fire (the mill-ftones, 
when no corn is between them, produce the fame effeCt, 
though the motion be the fame in both cafes) and many 
a mill hath been confirmed by this means. The method 
ufed by the Indians, of producing fire by the friClion of 
two pieces of w'ood againft each other is well known; 
and in all thefe cafes may not the firft effects of the 
latent fire, thus roufed into aCtion, be the production of 
thofe very appearances we call eleCtrical? See notes 2. 
3. 4. 5. and 6. 
