An account of some new experiments in electricity / [William Henly].

  • William Henly
Date:
1774
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of some new experiments in electricity / [William Henly]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    proved that the fufion had been com pleat. This experiment I made in the prefence of Mr, Fergufon, f. r. s. Mr. William Canton, Mr. Bell, and Mr. Marfham, who all acknowledged it per¬ fectly fatisfaCtory. Having mentioned the refuk of this experiment, and the method of making it, to Mr. nairne; he hath fince repeated it with equal fuccels. Being informed, by Mr. William Canton, that his brother, Mr. Thomas Canton, had, in preparing a dried cork for an experiment in elec¬ tricity, obferved fome appearances which in¬ duced him to believe, that the cork had been made eleCtrical, by only cutting it with a pen¬ knife, and that on examination he found it really was fo; I made the following experiment. EXPERIMENT VIII. I made a long cork perfectly dry, and held one end of it very near the tire, ,till it began to burn. At the fame time, I held a fmall, fine-toothed file, in the clear part of the fire, till that alfo, had become very dry, and rather hot. Then, having filed off the end of the cork, I applied it to a pair of neat, light pith-ballsy when it attracted them both, and raifed them perpendicffarly, as high as the firings would permit. Having electrified the balls by excited amber, the cork would increafe their divergence from one, to near two inches 3 or it would repel them at an inch difiance, fo as to drive them one inch and an half out of the per¬ pendicular. EkCtrifying the balls by excited giafs, thefe appearances were direCtly reverfed. The cork therefore had parted with its eleCtricity E to