Experiment

EXPERIMENT I.

Place an electrised phial on wax; a small cork-ball suspended by a dry silk-thread held in your hand, and brought near to the wire, will first be attracted, and then repelled: when in this state of repellency, sink your hand, that the ball may be brought towards the bottom of {5}the bottle; it will there be instantly and strongly attracted, ’till it has parted with its fire.

If the bottle had an electrical atmosphere, as well as the wire, an electrified cork would be repelled from one as well as from the other.

EXPERIMENT II.

Fig. 1. From a bent wire (a) sticking in the table, let a small linen thread (b) hang down within half an inch of the electrised phial (c). Touch the wire of the phial repeatedly with your finger, and at every touch you will see the thread instantly attracted by the bottle. (This is best done by a vinegar cruet, or some such belly’d bottle). As soon as you draw any fire out from the upper part by touching the wire, the lower part of the bottle draws an equal quantity in by the thread.

EXPERIMENT III.

Fig. 2. Fix a wire in the lead, with which the bottom of the bottle is armed, (d) so as that bending upwards, its ring-end may be level with the top or ring-end of the wire in the cork (e), and at three or four inches distance. Then electricise the bottle, and place it on wax. If a cork suspended by a silk thread (f) hang between these two wires, it will play incessantly from one to the other, ’till the bottle is no longer electrised; that is, it fetches and carries fire from the top to the bottom of the bottle, ’till the equilibrium is restored.

{6} EXPERIMENT IV.

Fig. 3. Place an electricised phial on wax; take a wire (g) in form of a C, the ends at such a distance when bent, as that the upper may touch the wire of the bottle, when the lower touches the bottom: stick the outer part on a stick of sealing wax (h) which will serve as a handle. Then apply the lower end to the bottom of the bottle, and gradually bring the upper-end near the wire in the cork. The consequence is, spark follows spark till the equilibrium is restored. Touch the top first, and on approaching the bottom with the other end, you have a constant stream of fire, from the wire entering the bottle. Touch the top and bottom together, and the equilibrium will soon be restored, but silently and imperceptibly; the crooked wire forming the communication.

EXPERIMENT V.

Fig. 4. Let a ring of thin lead or paper surround a bottle (i), even at some distance from or above the bottom. From that ring let a wire proceed up, ’till it touch the wire of the cork (k). A bottle so fixt cannot by any means be electrised: the equilibrium is never destroyed: for while the communication between the upper and lower parts of the bottle is continued by the outside wire, the fire only circulates: what is driven out at bottom, is constantly supply’d from the top. Hence a bottle cannot be electrised that is foul or moist on the outside.

{7} EXPERIMENT VI.

Place a man on a cake of wax, and present him the wire of the electrified phial to touch, you standing on the floor, and holding it in your hand. As often as he touches it, he will be electrified plus; and any one standing on the floor may draw a spark from him. The fire in this experiment passes out of the wire into him; and at the same time out of your hand into the bottom of the bottle.

EXPERIMENT VII.

Give him the electrified phial to hold; and do you touch the wire; as often you touch it he will be electrified minus, and may draw a spark from any one standing on the floor. The fire now passes from the wire to you, and from him into the bottom of the bottle.

EXPERIMENT VIII.

Lay two books on two glasses, back towards back, two or three Inches distant. Set the electrified phial on one, and then touch the wire; that book will be electrified minus; the electrical fire being drawn out of it by the bottom of the bottle. Take off the bottle, and holding it in your hand, touch the other with the wire; that book will be electrised plus; the fire passing into it from the wire, and the bottle at the same time supply’d from your hand. A suspended small cork-ball will play between these books ’till the equilibrium is restored.

{8} EXPERIMENT IX.

When a body is electrised plus it will repel an electrified feather or small cork-ball. When minus (or when in the common state) it will attract them, but stronger when minus than when in the common state, the difference being greater.

EXPERIMENT X.

Tho’, as in EXPER. VI. a man standing on wax may be electrised a number of times, by repeatedly touching the wire of an electrised bottle (held in the hand of one standing on the floor) he receiving the fire from the wire each time: yet holding it in his own hand, and touching the wire, tho’ he draws a strong spark, and is violently shock’d, no Electricity remains in him; the fire only passing thro’ him from the upper to the lower part of the bottle. Observe, before the shock, to let some one on the floor touch him to restore the equilibrium in his body; for in taking hold of the bottom of the bottle, he sometimes becomes a little electrised minus, which will continue after the shock; as would also any plus Electricity, which he might have given him before the shock. For, restoring the equilibrium in the bottle does not at all affect the Electricity in the man thro’ whom the fire passes; that Electricity is neither increased nor diminish’d.

EXPERIMENT XI.

The passing of the electrical fire from the upper to the lower part of the bottle, to restore the equilibrium is render’d strongly visible by the following pretty {9}experiment. Take a book whose cover is filletted with gold; bend a wire of eight or ten inches long in the form of (m) Fig. 5, slip it on the end of the cover of the book over the gold line, so as that the shoulder of it may press upon one end of the gold line, the ring up, but leaning towards the other end of the book. Lay the book on a glass or wax; and on the other end of the gold lines, set the bottle electrised: then bend the springing wire, by pressing it with a stick of wax till its ring approaches the ring of the bottle wire; instantly there is a strong spark and stroke, and the whole line of gold, which completes the communication between the top and bottom of the bottle, will appear a vivid flame, like the sharpest lightning.

The closer the contact between the shoulder of the wire, and the gold at one end of the line, and between the bottom of the bottle and the gold at the other end, the better the experiment succeeds. The room should be darkened. If you would have the whole filletting round the cover appear in fire at once, let the bottle and wire touch the gold in the diagonally opposite corners.

I am, &c.

B. FRANKLIN.