144 Earl Stanhope’s Remarks on Mr. Brydone’s 
their prefent ftate), to have maintained, that thofe very imper- 
fect machines were capable of rendering a conducting body 
completely pojitive , or completely negative , as for us, in the year 
1787, to conclude, that we (by our ftill imperfect machines) 
have attained the limit of eleCtrical exhauftion, or condenfation . 
We evidently have not, with our machines, even approached 
the limit of eleCtrical ftrength, particularly in refpect to the 
returning Jlroke : for it is remarkable, that (by the laws of 
eleCtricity *) the ftrength of the eleCtrical returning Jlroke , 
near the limit of the ftriking diftance, does increafe in a 
“ greater ratio,” than the ftrength of the main ftroke from 
the charged body, producing the elaftic eleCtrical atmofphere 
fuperinduced. 
§ 26. For example, let the returning ftroke be attempted to 
be produced, by means of a metallic prime conductor of 20 or 
21 inches in length, and of about two inches in diameter; 
and by means of another metallic body of equal dimenfions, 
placed parallel to the prime conductor, juft out of the limit of 
the ftriking diftance ; and let the prime conductor be charged, 
by means of one of the common glafs globes, of lefs that* 
nine inches in diameter. 
The returning ftroke, in this cafe, will not only be confi- 
derably weaker than a fpark taken from the prime conductor, 
but it will be fo extremely weak, that it can hardly be laid even 
to exift. 
§ 27. Whereas, if the experiment be made in a manner 
exaCtly fimilar, by means of a large glafs cylinder (inftead of 
the lmall globe) and by means of a metallic prime conductor, of 
about three feet four inches long -f, by nearly four inches and a 
* See my Principles of Electricity, § 340 and § 341. 
+ It is better if the prime conductor, and the other metallic body, be ftill 
larger. 
half 
