Experiments and observations on a new apparatus, called, a machine for exhibiting perpetual electricity : in a letter to the Rev. Dr. Horsley / from William Henley. Read at the Royal society, May 16, 1776.

  • Henley, William, -1779.
Date:
1776
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Experiments and observations on a new apparatus, called, a machine for exhibiting perpetual electricity : in a letter to the Rev. Dr. Horsley / from William Henley. Read at the Royal society, May 16, 1776. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    above mentioned, I think it unneceffary to recite them. I have likewife omitted to give a drawing; as to electri¬ cians, I apprehend, this paper will be intelligible without one; and to thofe who have not conlidered the fubjeCt, I imagine, it would be of very little, if indeed of any ufe whatever. The fame difficulty which occurred to Dr. franklin, in his analyfis of the Leyden bottle, may be faid to occur alfo in this apparatus, viz. it is hard to fay how, or where this electricity is depoiited, there is fo much of it; and it is fo eafily put in aCtion, that I am ffill further confirmed in an opinion that I. have long entertained, viz. that the flighted: friction between bodies of every kind, in every fituation, may difturb the eleCtric matter contained in them, though this effeCt be impel'-- ceptible to us, having no electrometer nice enough to dis¬ cover it.. 1 am, Sec, In the month of March laft, I’repeated Mr. grey’s % experiment with the cone of fulphur and the glafs; and find that, on leparating thefe.. bodies, the fulphur hath hitherto no alw'ays aCted as a ftrong negative eleCtric. Mr. wilcke, .in repeating this experiment, ob- ferved, that if the glafs veffel, into which the fulphur w as poured, wras covered with a coating of metal, the eleClrical property of the two bodies would be increafed,. the fulphur having acquired a ftronger negative, and the glafs a ftrong pofitive electricity <JK . (c) Sept. 23, 1776. (d) The ftem ctf the glafs fhould be varnifhed, or covered with cement, and the cone of fulphur (as M. epinas hath directed) be provided with a glafs handle, that the refpe&ive bodies may be feparated at pleafure, without touching them. I have