Lectures on electricity / by James Ferguson, F.R.S.

  • James Ferguson
Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on electricity / by James Ferguson, F.R.S. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    54/112 (page 48)
    EXPERIMENT XXV1I1. Striking gold Leaf into Glass. 69. Take two slips of common window-glass, eack about an inch broad and four inches long : then take a slip of gold or silver leaf, about the breadth of a straw, and six inches in length ; and put it between the glasses lengthwise, in the middle, letting the ends of the leaf hang an inch without the glasses at each end. Tie the glasses close together, by wrapping a strong silk thread round them, and lay them down on the table, so that one end of the metal leaf may be in contact with the coat- ing, at the bottom of ajar, placed so that it may be charged at the prime conductor. Then charge the jar, and having put one end of the discharger upon that part of the leaf that lies without the glass slips at their far- thest end from the jar, apply the other end of the dis- charger to the ball on the top of the jar-wire; and all the fire in the jar will be discharged through the metal leaf. If the slips of glass remain whole, you will see that the leaf is missing in several places ; and instead of it, a metallic stain upon both the glasses, exactly alike. When they are taken asunder, you will observe that the leaf has been melted by the electric lightning ; and ac- tually driven into the very substance of the glass, as neither aquafortis nor aqua regia will take it off. EXPERIMENT XXIX. Giving a Person an Electric Shock. 70. Let the person put a finger of one hand to the coating of a charged jar near the bottom, and then put a finger of the other hand to the ball of the jar-wire. Pie will then act the part of the wire discharger, and receive a shock through his arms and breast. The whole fire in the jar running thence by the wire and his