The Van Buren press., 1893-06-10
AN ANCIENT SCIENCE.
Experiments With Electricity In Xesfs
-. Long Gone By.f sFH zH4z


details upon the science of electricity
are found in the Nouveau Magasin
Francois published in l751. This pub
LEGATION in the middle of the eighteenth
century was what the scientific jour-
nails of to-day are to the end OF the
nineteenth. ~
It is known that it is not less than
six hundred years before the Christian
era that Thales of Miletus found that
by rubbing yellow amber 1T would at
tract light bodies. No more was known
for two thousand years until DIR. Gii.
bert, physician to Queen Elizabeth oil
England, discovered that glass, resin,
silk, etc, had the same properties as
amber.
It was not until the eighteenth cen
tury, or about 1872, that scientists COM
menced to seriously investigate cleo
tricity. Formerly" says LIE Cat. the
author of the treatise, there was but
little known on the subject
In 1727 the Englishman Gray dis
covered that any substance whatever
attracts light bodies when it is placed
at the end of piece of glass or resin
and rubbed with piece of cloth. lie
concluded that all bodies could become
electrified by friction and he classed
them as good and bad conductors OF
the unknown fluid.
1t was about 173O that DIR. Wall first
obtained an electric spark by holding
the finger short distance from piece
of amber that had been rubbed vigor-
ously. The discovery of this TACT
marked the commencement of series
of experiments by Gray, Able Nollet,
Dufay, Reichman and others. In 1913
Dufay invented the electric pendulum,
which enabled him to distinguish
vitrious or positive from resinous or
negative electricity. In TAG Cuncus,
the inventor Of the Leyden jar, assisted
by Muschenbroek, made somc expert
ments, the fame of which resounded
throughout Europe.
We come now to the year 1751, when
the Nouveau Magasin Francais pub
lished the results of the experiments of
lie Cat The first electric machines of
Otto de Gueriche consisted of large
sulphur globe traversed by a metallic
axle to which a crank was attached.
BY laying the hand upon this globe
and turning the crank electricity was
obtained. The electric machine of lie
Cat was of the same kind. He says:
I'm place of rubbing tube, which is
tiresomo, hollow glass sphere is
turned rapidly by the same mechanism
used by cutters to turn their grind
stones The electrolizer and the
one electrolizcd are mounted upon
pieces of resin, containing small
quantity of wax to prevent breaking.
"With this machine" says the author,
sthings arc accomplished that would
have been thought wonderful in less
enlightened centuries"
He deduces many propositions or OBJ
servations from his different expert
| ments.
phorus, body that gives out light in
the dark The flow of sparks is only a
new kind of phosphorus to be added
to those already known. Sparks drawn
from an electric body Or eleetralizer is
not electricity, at least it is not the
same kind of electricity as the body
from which the sparks come. Reel.
procally, when sparks cannot be pro
duced from substance, it is because ii
is not electric or that it is not imbued
with the same kind of electricity.
Electricity tends to pass off from its
source by species of centrifugal force.
Electric substances of different kinds
have among them kind of incompati.
bility which up to a certain point pre-
vents them from mixing.
The author gives to this property the
name of immiscibility. Says he:
Somewhat similar to that found be.
tween water and oil"
After rubbing with Spanish wax a
cone of sulphur, resin, or any other
electric substance, covering it with
papers, flannel, or similar material.
the electricity of the substance can be
kept for several months and even for
more than q year"
the author basis his hypotheses. He
had a number of dctractors and felt
that he must answer them. ''They OBJ
ject TO my applying the electrical phe-
nomena TO the system of the world and
other physical effects. | think these
applications are not wrong. as | am
supported by Messrs Gray, Dufay and
Desaguliers, who have shown me the
example. OF what use is electricity and
twenty years persevering work if we
only find that a tube attracts light
substances
The most curious part of the work is
the conclusion The author already
forsees lin 175D the great future that
is opened to the sciences, then, as they
say now, in its infancy.
He says he is ''very happy in his
knowledge of the sublime science with
which all the nations of Europe deeply
sympathize, a matter which is open to
new discoveries whose end cannot be
seem" Further he adds: "Should we
wait to make greater discoveries in this
science of electricity, whose beginning
is glimmer rather than light?"
Assuredly we know more about
electricity than our predecessors one
hundred and fifty years ago, but will
we ever see "the end of discoveries in
electricity" that the anthor speaks OF
I'm his work in 1751?-Chcago Times.
Water Purified by Iron.
The filthy water of the river Nethe is
purified for use in Antwerp by being
passed through revolving cylinders
containing small pieces of iron. Fif