*The Electrical Dance.* A number of little balls of cork or pith are
enclosed in a cylinder of glass about two and one-half or three inches
high formed by cutting off the top of a lamp chimney. The top and bottom
of the cylinder are closed by two circular pieces of sheet brass or
copper. The top disk is connected to the prime conductor while the
bottom one is connected to the rubber. When the machine is set in
motion, the little balls will dance up and down. Bits of feather or
paper cut to represent figures of men and women may be used as well as
pith or cork balls.
*The Electric Whirl.* The whirl consists of an S shaped piece of brass
wire, pointed at both ends and supported on a needle by a little conical
depression made in the center with a punch.
[Illustration: Fig. 50.—An Electric Whirl.]
The needle is stuck in a cork in the top of a bottle and connected with
the prime conductor of the electric machine. When the latter is set in
motion, the whirl will commence to revolve at a high rate of speed.
*Lichtenberg’s Figures* can be produced by charging a Leyden jar by
connecting the knob or inside coating with the prime conductor and
holding the outside coating in the hand.
Then trace a small circle on the electrophorus bed with the knob.
Charge a second Leyden jar by connecting the outside coating with the
prime conductor.
The inside coating should be connected to the rubber by means of a wire
fastened to the knob. The same result may be obtained by connecting the
outside coating with the prime conductor and touching the knob with the
hand.
Then trace a cross on the electrophorus bed with the knob, making the
cross inside of the circle.
[Illustration: Fig. 51.—Lichtenberg’s Figures.]
Shake a mixture of red lead and sulphur through a muslin bag from a
height of several inches over the electrophorus.
The red lead will accumulate around the cross and the sulphur around the
circle.
CHAPTER IV CELLS AND BATTERIES
In order that the young experimenter may obtain electricity for driving
his various electrical devices it is necessary to resort to batteries, a
small dynamo, or the house-lighting current.
All houses are not supplied with electric current. Furthermore, many
boys have no source of power from which to drive a small dynamo.
Batteries must therefore be resorted to in the majority of cases.
A number of different cells and batteries are described in this chapter.
All of them are practical, but after buying zinc, chemicals, etc., for
any length of time, figure out what your batteries _cost_ you to make.
The real value is not their cost in dollars and cents but in what you
have _learned_ in making them. If you have a continuous use for
electrical current for running _small_ electrical devices it is cheaper
to buy dry cells, or what is better, a _storage battery_, and have it
_recharged_ when necessary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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