The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1893-06-01
AN ANCIENT SCIENCE.
Experiments With Electricity In Years
Long Gone By.

| is never without interest. Some curious
| details upon the science of electricity
are found in the Nouveau Magasin
Francois published in 1851. 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.
1t is known that it is not less than
six hundred years before the Christian
era that Thales of Milctus found that
by rubbing yellow amber it would at
tract light bodies. No more was known
for two thousand years until DR.. Gill
bert, physician TO Queen Elizabeth of
England, discovered that glass, resin,
silk, etc, had the same properties as
amber.
1t was not until the eighteenth CEN
tury, or about l722, 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 1927 the Englishman Gray dis
covered that any substance whatever
attracts light bodies when it is placed
at the end of a 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 1870 that Or. Wall first
| obtained an electric spark by holding
| the finger a short distance from piece
of amber that had been rubbed vigor-
ouslv. The discovery of this fact
marked the commencement of series
of experiments by Gray, Able Nollet,
| Dufay, Reichman and others. In 1888
Dufay invented the electric pendulum,
which enabled him to distinguish
vitrious or positive from resmous or
negative electricity. In 1746 Cuneus,
the inventor of the Leyden jar, assisted
by Muschenbrock, made some expert
mentS, the fame of which resounded
throughout Europe.
We come now to the year 1851, when
the Nouveau Magasin Francois pub
lished the results of the experiments of
lie Cat The first electric machines of
otto de Guericlle consisted of large
sulphur globe traversed by a metallic
axle to which 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:
"In place of rubbing a tube, which is
tiresome. hollow glass sphere is
turned rapidly by the same mechanism
used by cutters to turn their grind
stones" The clectrolizer and the
| one electrolized are mounted upon
pieces of resin, containing small
quantity of wax to prevent breaking.
"With this machine" says the author,
"things are accomplished that would
have been thought wonderful in less
enlightened centuries"
He deduces many propositions or OBJ
scrvations from his different expert
ments.
scientists have examined phos-
| 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 electralizer 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 a substance, it is because it
| is not electric or that il is not imbued
with the same kind of electricity.
| Electricity tends to pass off from its
source by a species of centrifugal force.
| Electric substances of different kinds
have among them kind of incompati-
bility which up TO 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 year"
Upon the result of his experiments
the author basis his hypothesis. He
| had number of detractors 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 l75D the great future that
| is opened to the sciences. then, as they
say now. in its infancy.
lie says he is very happy in his
knowledge of the sublime science with
which all the nations of Europe deeply
| svmpathizc, matter which is open to
new discoveries whose end cannot be
seen" Further he adds: should we
wait to make greater discoveries in this
science of electricity. whose beginning
| is glimmer rather than light?"
Assurcdly we know more about
electricity than our predecessors one
hundred and fifty years ago, but will
we ever see 'thc end of discoveries in
| electricity" that the author speaks of
| in his work In t15l?-ChicagO Times.