Roll up flannel thickly, rub it with sealing-wax, and the roll will by turns attract and repel the feather; when thus repelled, apply the excited wax, and it will instantly attract the feather.
When the atmosphere is dry, take in one hand a rod of glass and in the other a stick of sealing-wax, and rub them against silk or worsted; with one of them approach a bit of gold-leaf, floating in the air, it will first attract and then repel it. When the gold has just been repelled, approach it with the other rod, and it will be immediately attracted; and this alternate attraction and repulsion may be strikingly displayed by placing the two excited rods at a small distance asunder, with the gold leaf between them.
ALCHEMICAL ELECTRICITY.
Nearly fill a wine-glass with a weak solution of blue vitriol in water, and place in it the blade of a knife and a small silver spoon; the knife will soon acquire a copper coating, but the spoon will remain bright until it is touched with the blade of the knife, when it will also become plated with copper.
THE ELECTRIC BALLS.
Provide two small balls of equal size; both made of gum-lac, and cover one with gold leaf. Suspend these balls from a beam by fine white silk threads, at a little distance from each other, so as to allow a comparison of their motions. Then rub a stick of red sealing-wax upon any woollen substance, or warm it at the fire, and present it to the balls; when it will be at once seen that the gilt ball, which readily admits of the transfer of electricity from one side to the other, will be sooner and more powerfully attracted than the other ball, which allows of no motion in its electricity. The latter ball will, however, by slow degrees be feebly attracted, and may, at length, be made to adhere for a considerable time to the sealing-wax.
THE ELECTRIC DANCE.
Lay on a table small pieces of paper or cotton, feathers, or gold-leaf; then rub with a silk handkerchief a glass tube, hold it parallel to the table, and the several pieces will be alternately attracted and repelled, and a kind of electrical dance will be kept up.
If to the further end of the tube you hang a brass ball, by a thread of linen, hemp, or metallic wire, the ball will participate in the magic power of the rubbed tube; but if the ball be suspended by a cord of silk, worsted, or hair, or be attached by wax or pitch, the attractive and repulsive properties of the rod will not pass into the ball.