Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1894-03-02
WHOLE NUMBER 1888.
TRY YOUR CURRENT.
AN EASY WAY TO TEST HUMAN
ELECTRICITY.

An Experiment by which One Can
Light an Incandescent Lamp
without Battery Cell or Other
Apparatus.
That every one has enough natural
electricity in bis or her body to light
up an incandescent lamp will strike
most people as strange, yet it is true.
Without dynamo, battery cell or like
appliance of any kind other than GER
tain ,manipplatiops of a stout pair OF
hands, the experiment can be per-
formed and,~ss interesting result OBJ
tanned.
Even the average electrician, in
whose scientific mind two and two
always make four, may be skeptical,
but his doubts will cease when he
learns it is by frictional electricity that
the lighting effect is to be obtained.
Most people have heard of that an
cient experiment set down in the nat
ural PHILOSOPHERS Of school days by
which, if the family cat is willing, you
may produce miniature pyrotechnic
display merely by rubbing the cats
fur the wrong way. Performed in a
dark room, that experiment is highly
interesting, but it has the distinct
drawback that the puss seldom or
never cuts her nails.
To perform the lamp experiment,
take an ordinary incandescent lamp
globe-one that has been used-and
grasp it at its lower or socket end with
the thumb and fingers. The thumb
and fingers Of the other hand are then
encircled around the wide part of the
glass bulb, as in the illustration. The
lamp is then rapidly moved back and
forth through the hand that is around
the bulb. If this is done and the ex-
pertinent performed in dark room
the lamp will glow for some moments
after the rubbing has ceased.
The illumination is most beautiful,
being OF a delicate cream color, with
a slight blush tinge, and appearing
very much like miniature aurora.
Although this is plainly phase ol
frictional electricity, the exact reason
for the phenomenon is not known
nor is it always successful under the
same conditions. A recent expert
menter, commenting on this strange
conduct of the incandescent bulb
says:
"If ever . phenomenon was full ol
caprice, certainly this one is, for al
times in following out the same con-
ditions that have been acted upon
previously no results whatever were
produced. The experiment again has
been a failure when tried at different
locations, three or four miles apart
with the same lamp in use and taking
precautions to carefully insulate thu
experimenter from possible contact
with the earth.
"Certain persons seem unable Il
call forth vacuo after repeated at
: tempts. The results are also modified
by different kinds and sizes OF lamps
the smaller bulbs appearing to giv'
the best results"
In all of the experiments which
| were successful the glow appeared Il
, be directly proportioned to the spee'
, with which the lamp was moved an,
the distance of such movements. o
course, limit Of speed is soon reached
. above which it is impossible to procee,
by manual power. The glow does no
affect the filament at all, and ther
are no peculiar sensations felt in tn
hands. A slight cracking sound is a
times noticeable.
1t must not be supposed that it i
the filament in the lamp that glows
That would be mechanical impossi
bility. The part that lights up is th
glass itself.