Fluat 
ELE 
y 
V 
ELE 
fFluoric 
acid 
V 
Potash" 
n. 
''Copper 
Sulphur'! 
< 
Carbo- 
>natof 
potash 
Alloy 
of gold 
and < 
copper 
^Lime 
Carbonic 
acid 
.Gold 
Antimony^ 
Sul- 
phuret 
.of an- 
timony 
CMk 
ELECTRICITY. The word electricity 
rienotes a peculiar state, of which all bodies 
are susceptible, and which is supposed to 
depend upon the presence of a substance 
called the electric fluid. Some of its phe- 
nomena were known to the ancients, par- 
ticularly thpse attractions and repulsions 
which a piece of amber, after being rub- 
bed, exhibits, with regard to hairs, feathers, 
and other small bodies ; and the name elec- 
tricity is derived from the Greek word de- 
noting amber. 
This subject is so far from being well un- 
derstood, even at present, that there is 
some difficulty even in classing the facts. 
They may, however, be stated as follows : 
A body in an electric state attracts other 
bodies, and these become electric by touch- 
ing it, and are afterwards repelled. Bodies 
are capable of being electrified more or 
less strongly ; and when the electric state is 
considerably strong, the electrified body 
will throw out luminous sparks, or flashes, 
to other bodies brought near it, and by 
that means communicate the same electric 
state to them, without actual contact. 
The means by which bodies are rendered 
electric are so various, that it may be as- 
serted, perhaps without exception, that 
every change, whether mechanical or che- 
mical, which can take place in them, will 
at the same time produce electricity, or al- 
ter their electric state. When one body is 
applied to another, and they are afterwards 
separated ; or if they be rubbed together ; 
or if their parts be torn asunder ; or if they 
be heated; or cooled; or evaporated; or 
congealed; or fused; or if any chemical 
combination be made to take place be- 
tween them ; — the signs of electricity be- 
come manifest, though with differences of 
intensity dependant on the nature of the 
bodies, as well as of the processes and the 
eirenmstances ; some of which have been 
so far classed as to take the form of sci- 
ence, while others remain to be developed 
by new researches. 
When the electric state is communicated 
from one body to another, very striking dif- 
ferences are observed in its effects. Some 
bodies become electrified only in those 
parts which are near the place of commu- 
nication, and the electric state is consider- 
ably permanent ; other bodies transmit the 
electric energy from part to part with great 
rapidity and facility. The former of these 
have been called non-conductors, and the 
latter conductors of electricity. From the 
properties here described, it will easily be 
understood, that a non-conductor cannot 
be made to exhibit the electric state for 
any perceptible portion of time, unless it be 
supported by a non-conductor. In this si- 
tuation it is said to be insulated. 
The state of electricity which is pro- 
duced by chemical changes in bodies, has 
within a few late year's greatly engaged the 
attention of the philosophical world, under 
the denomination of Galvanism, which 
see. 
It does not appear that the property of 
conducting electricity depends altogether 
on the nature or component parts of tire 
conductors themselves, but rather on their 
state with regard to heat. Glass, resin, 
baked wood, atmospheric air, and many 
other bodies, which are non-conductors in 
the ordinary temperature of tlie atmosphere, 
become conductors when very hot ; and on 
the contrary, ice cooled to 13" below 0 on 
Fahrenheit’s scale, has all the properties of 
non-conductors. If we might generalize 
these facts, analogy would lead us to an in- 
duction, that, as the freezing points of bodiw 
differ so greatly among each other, and in 
some, as in alcohol and the gases, it can 
only be admitted by supposition, — so there 
may be in ail bodies some temperature pe- 
\ 
