Benjamin Franklin; Self-Revealed, Volume 2 (of 2): A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own WritingsBruce, Wiliam Cabell
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Benjamin Franklin; Self-Revealed, Volume 2 (of 2): A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own Writings
Bruce, Wiliam Cabell
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790
Purposing [he said] to analyze the electrified bottle,
in order to find wherein its strength lay, we placed it
on glass, and drew out the cork and wire, which for
that purpose had been loosely put in. Then taking the
bottle in one hand, and bringing a finger of the other
near its mouth, a strong spark came from the water, and
the shock was as violent as if the wire had remained in
it, which shewed that the force did not lie in the
wire. Then, to find if it resided in the water, being
crouded into and condensed in it, as confin'd by the
glass, which had been our former opinion, we
electrified the bottle again, and, placing it on glass,
drew out the wire and cork as before; then, taking up
the bottle, we decanted all its water into an empty
bottle, which likewise stood on glass; and taking up
that other bottle, we expected, if the force resided in
the water, to find a shock from it; but there was
none. We judged then, that it must either be lost in
decanting, or remain in the first bottle. The latter we
found to be true; for that bottle on trial gave the
shock, though filled up as it stood with fresh
unelectrified water from a teapot.
By a similar course of experimentation with sash glass and lead plates, he
also demonstrated that the form of the glass in the bottle was immaterial,
that the power resided in the glass as glass, and that the non-electrics in
contact served only like the armature of a loadstone to unite the force of
the several parts, and to bring them at once to any point desired; it being
the property of a non-electric that the whole body instantly receives or
gives what electric fire is given to, or taken from, anyone of its parts.
These experiments suggested the idea of intensifying the application of
electrical forces by grouping numerous electrical centres.
We made [he said] what we called an _electrical
battery_, consisting of eleven panes of large
sash-glass, arm'd with thin leaden plates, pasted on
each side, placed vertically, and supported at two
inches distance on silk cords, with thick hooks of
leaden wire, one from each side, standing upright,
distant from each other, and convenient communications
of wire and chain, from the giving side of one pane, to
the receiving side of the other; that so the whole
might be charged together, and with the same labour as
one single pane; and another contrivance to bring the
giving sides, after charging, in contact with one long
wire, and the receivers with another, which two long
wires would give the force of all the plates of glass
at once through the body of any animal forming the
circle with them. The plates may also be discharged
separately, or any number together that is required.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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