The Express.
London, England, 1857-12-30 00:00:00

ROYAL INSTITUTION.

Yesterday afternoon Professor Faraday com-
menced his anal Christmas course of lectures, addressed to
&juvenile auditory, at the Royal Institution. Hie Royal
Highness the Prince of Wales attended, and occupied a
chair immediately in front of the lecture table. The subject
of the relent course is static electricity, and Pretence
Faraday, who, it is gratifying to observe, displays as much
vigour and animation as in years gone by, commenced hie
subject by repeating the declaration he made several yens
ago at the meeting of the British Association at Swansea,
' that of the nature of electricity he knows nothing, and that
the longer he lives the more convinced he becomes of his
ignorance of the nature of that force. Of Its facts and of
the laws that govern its operation he said he had indeed
attained considerable knewledge, and some of that know-
ledge be hoped to bo able to impart to him young audience.
His object in the first instanoe was to show how
readily, and from what a variety of bodies, elec-
tric force can be excited, for which purpose he
employed a glue rod, a stick of shell-lac, and a
piece of gutta perch', by the friction of which light bodies
of different kinds were alike attracted, and the gold leaves
of the electrometer were diverged. He then called upon
his audience to wander the wonderful effect produced by
the friction of those substance, which by that action were
converted from apparently Mart bodies into active powers,
which attracted or.her boars sad emitted light. Profaner
Faraday laid particular strew on the fact, that during
the excitement of electricity by friction, the rubber be-
comes equally electrical with the enbetanee that ie rubbed,
and he exemplified it by holding a strip of flannel by
each end, and rubbing it backwards and forwards on the
braes stage at the top of the electrometer, and then
placing the flannel on the top of a second electro-
meter, when the gold leaves of both instruments became
equally divergent. Having shown that electricity may
be excited by the position of varieties of bodies
different in thew mechanical structure, Professor Faraday
proceeded to exemplify that the chemical composition of
electrke may aim be essentially different. For this purpose
gulls perch& and gun cotton were telecttd es opposite in-
stants,. Out* perch& abounds in carbon, of which abun-
dant proof was given by it. combustion in oxygen gas, when
volume. of met completely blailened the inside of the jar
that contained the gam. (;on cotton especially, to its pre-
paration ea collodion, is eminently electrical, and a film of
that setetance, after being merely paned through the fingers,
caused the gold leave of the electrometer to diverge. It
was then applied to the flame of a spirit lamp, to show that
it is as explosive as gunpowder, and abounds in nitrogen.
Professor Faraday exhibited and burnt Dome piece of gun
eon= pager, which had been sent to him by Professor
SchonLein, the inventor of gun cotters, seven years ago.
Several illustrations were given of the excitement
of electricity that I. constantly taking place without our
notice by the ordinary actions of life; such, for instant*,
as combing the hair when it is dry, and rubbing the feet on
the carpet. The latter effect was shown by teaching the top
of the electrometer, whilst the profaner rubbed hie foot on a
mat. The rubbing of paper with Indiarubber also generates
elenrieity abundantly, and this was illustrated by placing •
sheet of foolscap paper, after having been rubbed on an in-
sulated stand, near the gm-burner, mad on sudeltnly remov-
ing the paper a spark was emitted which set fire to the gas.
The accumulation of electricity by electrical machines woe
next shown, first by one of the globe =claws used by the
earliest electricians, which was excited by a ribbon held in
the hand, and afterward. by the powerful cylieder
and plate machines of the institution. Professor Fa-
raday Impressed on his audience that these
affects went exactly the same in kind, and o-
pendsd an the name principle as the excitement of elec.
trkity by the rubbing • stick of sealing-wax on a pine
of cloth, and that his audience might at their own homes,
and without any epeeist apparatus, exemplify the leading
facts of electricity. lie constructed for this purpose several
simple pieces of *spanner, ono of which was formed by
sticking a rod ofseelnagnax into a bung to make • foundation,
and Warming a tobacco pipe on the top, which simple sr-
' rangenent afforded • derided indication of the p.ressece of
en excited electric, by the turnips round of the pipe as the
' electric was brought near one end. Another structure con-
natedof en imitated wino glass, to form a centre; and a
piece ef fiat glen having been laid upon it, a long lath was
dolienely balanced on the centre and turned round readily on
the &preach of an excited stick of sealing wax, thus forming
• good electrometer.
At tree conclusion of the lecture the young prince shook
hands with Professor Faraday, who did not, ea on a former
occeeim, address the lecture to his royal highness'.