Experiments and Observations Tending to Illustrate the Nature and Properties of Electricity: In One Letter to Martin Folkes, Esq; President, and Two to the Royal SocietyWatson, William, Sir
History
Experiments and Observations Tending to Illustrate the Nature and Properties of Electricity: In One Letter to Martin Folkes, Esq; President, and Two to the Royal Society
Watson, William, Sir
Electricity -- Early works to 1850
A DRY Sponge hanging by a Pack-thread at the End of an electrified
Sword, or from the Hand of an electrified Man, gives no Signs of being
made electrical; if it is well soak'd in Water, wherever it is touched,
you both see and feel the electrical Sparks. Not only so, but if it is
so full of Water, that it falls from the Sponge, those Drops in a dark
Room, receiv'd upon your Hand, not only flash and snap, but you perceive
a pricking Pain. If you hold your Hand, or any non-electrical
Substances, very near, the Water which had ceased dropping when the
Sponge was not electrified, drops again upon its being electrified, and
the Drops fall in Proportion to the receiv'd Electricity, as though the
Sponge were gently squeez'd between your Fingers. I was desirous to know
if I was able to electrify a Drop of cold Water, dropping from the
Sponge, enough to fire the Spirit; but after many unsuccessful Trials, I
was forced to desist; because the cold Water dropping from the Sponge
not only cool'd the Spirit too much, but also render'd it too weak;
likewise, every Drop carried with it great Part of the Electricity from
the Sponge. I then consider'd, in what Manner, I could give a Tenacity
to the Water, sufficient to make the Drops hang a considerable Time, and
this I brought about by making a Mucilage of the Seeds of Fleawort. A
wet Sponge then, squeez'd hard and fill'd with this cold Mucilage, was
held in the Hand of an electrified Man, when the Drops forced out by the
Electricity, assisted by the Tenacity of the Liquor, hung some Inches
from the Sponge, and by a Drop of this I fir'd not only the Spirit of
Wine, but likewise the inflammable Air before mentioned, both with and
without the Explosion. What an extraordinary Effect is this! That a Drop
of cold Water (for the Seeds contribute nothing but add Consistence to
the Water) should be the Medium of Fire and Flame.
CAMPHOR is a vegetable Resin, and of Consequence an Electric _per se_.
This Substance, notwithstanding its great Inflammability, will not take
fire from the Finger of a Man or any other Body electrified, though made
very warm and the Vapours arise therefrom in great Abundance. Because,
neither Electric's _per se_ excited, or electrified Bodies, exert their
Force by snapping upon Electric's _per se_, though not excited. If you
break Camphor small and warm it in a Spoon, it is not melted by Heat
like other Resins; but if that Heat were continued it would all prove
volatile. To Camphor thus warm'd, the Finger of an electrified Man, a
Sword or such-like, will in snapping exert its Force upon the Spoon, and
the circum-ambient Vapour of the Camphor will be fired thereby, and
light up the whole Quantity exposed. The same Experiment succeeds by the
repulsive Power of Electricity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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