Experiments and Observations on Electricity Made at Philadelphia in AmericaFranklin, Benjamin
History
Experiments and Observations on Electricity Made at Philadelphia in America
Franklin, Benjamin
Electricity -- Early works to 1850
17. This was discovered here in the following manner. Purposing to analyse
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 connfi'd by the glass,
which had been our former opinion, we electrify'd 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 tea-pot.--To find then, whether glass had this property merely as glass,
or whether the form contributed any thing to it; we took a pane of
sash-glass, and laying it on the stand, placed a plate of lead on its upper
surface; then electrify'd that plate, and bringing a finger to it, there
was a spark and shock. We then took two plates of lead of equal dimensions,
but less than the glass by two inches every way, and electrified the glass
between them, by electrifying the uppermost lead; then separated the glass
from the lead, in doing which, what little fire might be in the lead was
taken out and the glass being touched in the electrified parts with a
finger, afforded only very small pricking sparks, but a great number of
them might be taken from different places. Then dexterously placing it
again between the leaden plates, and compleating a circle between the two
surfaces, a violent shock ensued.--Which demonstrated the power to reside
in 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
bring them at once to any point desired: it being a property of a
non-electric, that the whole body instantly receives or gives what
electrical fire is given to or taken from any one of its parts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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