A sequel to the Experiments and observations tending to illustrate the nature and properties of electricity : wherein it is presumed, by a series of experiments expresly for that purpose, that the source of the electrical power, and its manner of acting are demonstrated. Addressed to the Royal Society / by William Watson.

  • William Watson
Date:
1746
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A sequel to the Experiments and observations tending to illustrate the nature and properties of electricity : wherein it is presumed, by a series of experiments expresly for that purpose, that the source of the electrical power, and its manner of acting are demonstrated. Addressed to the Royal Society / by William Watson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [ *3 ] is confiderably leffen’d. If mercury, much the fame as water ; the ftroke is by no means increafed in proportion to their fpecific gravities, as might have been imagined *. XVII. The vial fhould not be lefs than can conveniently be grafped. I generally make ufe of thofe, which hold fevenor eight ounces, and fill them about four fifths with water; and the ftroke from one of thefe, under the fame circumftances, is equally ftrong with that of a Florence flask held in the hand, which I have fometimes made ufe of; though the glafs of this laft is equally thin with that of the vial, and the quantity of water four times as much. That the ftroke there¬ fore is not as the quantity of water e- lectri- * In this experiment and in others, wherein we affert that the ftroke is not increafed in proportion to the quantity of electrified matter; it muft always be underftood, that the excited non-eleftrics rhemfelves are touched without being contained in originaily- eleCtrics, as water in the glafs : for otherwife (as will hereafter be fpecifted) the effeCts of different quan¬ tities of matter will be very different.