Some new experiments, with observations upon heat, clearly shewing the erroneous principles of the French theory : also, a letter to Henry Cavendish, containing some pointed animadversions; with strictures upon some late chemical papers in the Philosophical Transactions, and other remarks / by Robert Harrington.

  • Harrington, Robert, 1751-1837.
Date:
1798
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some new experiments, with observations upon heat, clearly shewing the erroneous principles of the French theory : also, a letter to Henry Cavendish, containing some pointed animadversions; with strictures upon some late chemical papers in the Philosophical Transactions, and other remarks / by Robert Harrington. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    || =3 — W3 t XXV ] That experiment of a bar of iron recei- ving a certain quantity of the fun’s rays upon it, heating it to fuch a point: but, if all thofe rays be colle<5led together by a convex glafs, or mirror, and then the iron receives them, it will be heated to a greater degree. Here the falne quantity of rays re- s', ccive a greater heating power, from having : their repelling power iiicreafed, by being ; concentrated. The theory is this, fire heats from its mo- I tion, and that motion is owing to the parti- I to its minus elcclricity; for this clear and fimplc rcafon. I As tlic balls poflefs lefs clcftricity than the air, in confe- t ,quencc, the air next the furfacc of the balls, its natural : clcftricity will be lefs repelled, and, in confequcncc ac- cumulate there, or form an atmofphcrc of plus clcftricity ' around the balls; the refult of which is, the balls, fronx V i)?ving an elecflrical atmofphcre around them, will repel each other. As the de£l:iical fire is un'rcrfally diftribu- j ted through all bodies; each particle of the fire repels its I neighbour, in confcquenetJ, when a body lofes its natural 5 faturatioii, the repulfion from that body will betaken of» I and, confcquehtly, the neighbouring fire will accumu- : Lite around it to reftore the equilibrium. An clc£lrical conduftor, elcelrified pofitively, I have ' found the atmofperc around it in different dates of clec- ‘ tricity. The fird column beyond the condu£lors atmof- I phere, I have found negatively elcftrified, from the j condu£lor repelling the air’s natural faturation of fire.--. Beyond that again, pofitivc eletSfricity, from the column of air beyond the repulfion of the conduftor’s clcdlricity; ' the elcdlrical fire accumulating from the columri of air next to the clcdlrical conductor, being elcdtrificd nega- tively, in confequence repelling its neighbouring column kfs, producing, in confequence, a greater accumulation, or the plus date, 1 a cles
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