Mr . cavendish on the Torpedo. 221 
gm, fig. 5. is a piece of dry wood; f f, Ee, d d, c c, 
B b, and a a, are pieces of brafs wire fattened to it, and 
turned up at bottom into the form of a hook, on which 
is hung a fmall brafs chain, as in the figure, fo as to form 
five loops, each loop confifting of five links ; the part g is 
covered with tinfoil, which is made to communicate with 
the wire Aa. If I held this piece of wood in one hand, 
with my thumb on either of the wires f/, e<?, Sec. and 
applied the part g to one furface of an eledtric organ, 
while with a fpoon, held in the other hand, I touched the 
oppofite furface, I received a fhock, provided the battery 
was charged high enough, the electricity patting through 
all that part of the chain between a a, and my thumb ; fo 
that I could make the fhock pafs through more or fewer 
loops, according to which wire my thumb was placed on ; 
but if the charge was too weak to force a pattage through 
the chain, I felt no fhock, as the wood was too dry to 
convey any fenfible quantity of eledlricity. The event 
of the experiment was, that if I charged the whole bat- 
tery to fuch a degree that the fhock would but juft pafs 
through two loops of the machine, and then charged a 
fingle row to fuch a degree as appeared, on trial, juft fuf- 
ficient to give a fhock of the fame ftrength as the former, 
it patted through all five loops ; whether it would have 
patted through more I cannot tell. If, on the other hand, 
I gave fuch a charge to the Whole battery, and alfo to the 
fingle row, as was juft fufiicient to force a pattage through 
two loops of the chain, the fhock with the whole battery 
was much ftronger than that with the fingle row. 
It 
