PRINCIPLES.
I. Electric atmospheres, that flow round non-electric bodies, being brought near each other, do not readily mix and unite into one atmosphere, but remain separate, and repel each other.
This is plainly seen in suspended cork balls, and other bodies electrified.
II. An electric atmosphere not only repels another electric atmosphere, but will also repel the electric matter contained in the substance of a body approaching it; and without joining or mixing with it, force it to other parts of the body that contained it.
This is shewn by some of the following experiments.
III. Bodies electrified negatively, or deprived of their natural quantity of electricity, repel each other, (or at least appear to do so, by a mutual receding) as well as those electrified positively, or which have electric atmospheres.
This is shewn by applying the negatively charged wire of a phial to two cork balls, suspended by silk threads, and many other experiments.
PREPARATION.
Fix a tassel of fifteen or twenty threads, three inches long, at one end of a tin prime conductor (mine is about five feet long, and four inches diameter) supported by silk lines.
Let the threads be a little damp, but not wet.