CAROLINE.
But does the battery become more and more strongly charged, merely by being allowed to stand undisturbed?
MRS. B.
No, for the action will soon stop, as was explained before, unless a vent be given to the accumulated electricities. This is easily done, however, by establishing a communication by means of the wires (Fig. 1.), between the two ends of the battery: these being brought into contact, the two electricities meet and neutralize each other, producing the shock and other effects of electricity; and the action goes on with renewed energy, being no longer obstructed by the accumulation of the two electricities which impeded its progress.
EMILY.
Is it the union of the two electricities which produces the electric spark?
MRS. B.
Yes; and it is, I believe, this circumstance which gave rise to Sir H. Davy’s opinion that caloric may be a compound of the two electricities.
CAROLINE.
Yet surely caloric is very different from the electrical spark?