The Boy's Playbook of Science / Including the Various Manipulations and Arrangements of Chemical and Philosophical Apparatus Required for the Successful Performance of Scientific Experiments in Illustration of the Elementary Branches of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy

by John Henry Pepper

Tenth Experiment.

If a little powdered chalk is placed inside a pair of bellows, and then forcibly ejected on to the disc of the electroscope, the friction of the particles of chalk against the inside of the nozzle of the bellows and against the disc of the instrument soon liberates sufficient electricity to cause the gold leaves to stand out and repel each other.

Eleventh Experiment.

Whilst the leaves of the electroscope are repelled from each other by the application of a bit of rubbed sealing-wax, they may be again caused to approach each other on bringing a dry glass tube previously rubbed with a silk-handkerchief; because the electricity obtained from sealing-wax is different from that procured from glass: the former is called resinous or negative electricity, the latter positive or vitreous electricity. Either, separately, is repulsive of its own particles, but attractive of the other. No electrical excitation can occur without the separation of these two curious states of electricity, and electrical quiescence takes place when the two electricities are brought together; hence the fall of the gold leaves repelled by rubbed wax when the excited glass is brought towards the disc of the electroscope. This experiment may be reversed by repelling the leaves first with the excited glass, and then bringing the rubbed wax, when the same effect takes place.

Twelfth Experiment.

To show the important elementary truth, that in all cases of electrical excitation the two kinds of electricity are generated, take a dry roll of flannel, and holding it as lightly as possible, rub it against a bit of wax. If the flannel is brought to the electroscope, the leaves repel each other, and they immediately fall when the wax is now approached, because the flannel is in the positive or vitreous state of electricity, whilst the sealing-wax is in the negative or resinous condition.

Thirteenth Experiment.

Any kind of friction generates electricity. A little roll brimstone placed in a dry mortar and powdered, and then thrown on to the electroscope, quickly causes the repulsion of the leaves.

Fourteenth Experiment.

A sheet of dry brown paper laid on a flat surface, and vigorously rubbed with a piece of india-rubber, produces so much electricity that sparks and flashes of light are apparent in a dark room when it is lifted from the table; and it affects the leaves of the electroscope very powerfully, so much so that care must be taken to apply it very carefully to the disc, or the violence of the repulsion may cause the fracture of the gold leaves, and then a great deal of time is wasted before they can be put on again.