knuckle. At this key a phial may be charged, and from the electric fire thus obtained, spirits may be kindled and all the other electric experiments performed, which are usually done by the help of a rubbed glass or tube, and thereby the identity of the electric matter with that of lightning completely demonstrated

The Candle lighted by Electricity.

Charge a small coated phial, whose knob is bent outwards so as to hang a little over the body of the phial; then wrap some loose cotton over the extremity of a long brass pin or wire, so as to stick moderately fast to its substance. Next roll this extremity of the pin which is wrapped up in cotton in some fine powdered resin; then apply the extremity of the pin or wire to the external coating of the charged phial, and bring as quickly as possible the other extremity that is wrapped round with cotton to the knob: the powdered resin takes fire, and communicates its flame to the cotton, and both together burn long enough to light a candle. Dipping the cotton in oil of turpentine will do as well as if you use a larger sized jar.

Candle Bombs.

Procure some small glass bubbles, having a neck about an inch long, with very slender bores, by means of which a small quantity of water is to be introduced into them, and the orifice afterwards closed up. This stalk being put through the wick of a burning candle, the flame boils the water into a steam, and the glass is broken with a loud explosion.

Dancing Balls.

Take a common tumbler or glass jar, and having placed a brass ball in one of the holes of the prime conductor, set the machine in motion, and let the balls touch the inside of the tumbler; while the ball touches

only one point, no more of the surface of the glass will be electrified, but by moving the tumblers about so as to make the ball touch many points successively, all these points will be electrified, as will appear by turning down the tumbler over a number of pith or cork balls placed on a table. These balls will immediately begin to fly about.

The Leyden Phial.

When a nail or a piece of thick brass wire, &a is put into a small apothecary's phial and electrified, remarkable effects will follow; but the phial must be very dry or warm. Rub it once beforehand with your finger, on which put some pounded chalk. If a little mercury, or a few drops of spirit of wine, be put into it, the experiment succeeds the better. As soon as this phial and nail are removed from the electrifying glass, or the prime conductor to which it has been exposed, is taken away, it throws out a pencil of flame so long, that with this burning machine in your hand, you may take about sixty steps in walking about your room. When it is electrified strongly, you may take it into another room, and there fire spirits of wine with it. If, while it is electrifying, you put your finger, or a piece of gold which you hold in your hand, to the nail, you receive a shock which stuns your arms and shoul, ders.

A tin tube, or a man placed upon electrics, is electrified much stronger by this means than in the common way. When you present this phial and nail to a tin ́ tube, fifteen feet long, nothing but experience can make a person believe how strongly it is electrified. Two thin glasses have been broken by the shock of it. It appears extraordinary, that when this phial and nail are in contact with either conducting or non-conducting matter, the strong shock does not follow.

Rosin ignited by Electricity.

Wrap some cotton wool, containing as much powdered rosin as it will hold, about one of the knobs of a discharging rod. Then having charged a Leyden jar, apply the naked knob of the rod to the external coating, and the knob enveloped by the cotton to the ball of the wire. The act of discharging the jar will set fire to

the rosin.

A piece of phosphorus or camphor wrapped in cotton wool, and used in the same way, will be much more easily inflamed.

Spirits ignited by Electricity.

Hang a small ball with a stem to the prime conductor, so that the ball may project below the conductor. Then warm a little ardent spirit, by hölding it a short time over a candle in a metallic spoon; hold the spoon about an inch below the ball, and set the machine in motion. A spárk will soon issue from the ball, and set fire to the spirits.

This experiment may be varied different ways, and may be rendered very agreeable to a company of spectators. A person, for instance, standing upon an electric stool, and communicating with the prime conductor, may hold the spoon with the spirits in his hand, and another person, standing upon the floor, may set the spirits on fire, by bringing his finger within a small distance of it. Instead of his finger, he may fire the spirits with a piece of ice; when the experiment will seem much more surprising. If the spoon be held by the person standing upon the floor, and the insulated person bring some conducting substance over the surface of the spirit, the experiment succeeds as well.

Electrified Air.

Fix two or three pointed needles into the prime conductor of an electrical machine, and set the glass in motion so as to keep the prime conductor electrified

for several minutes. If now, an electrometer be brought within the air that is contiguous to the prime conductor, it will exhibit signs of electricity, and this air will continue electrified for some time, even after the machine has been removed into another room. The air, in this case is electrified positively; it may be negatively electrified by fixing the needles in the nega tive conductor while insulated, and making a commu nication between the prime conductor and the table, by means of a chain or other conducting substance.

The air of a room may be electrified in another way. Charge a large jar, and insulate it; then connect two or more sharp pointed wires or needles, with the knob of the jar, and connect the outside coating of the jar with the table. If the jar be charged positively, the air of the room will soon become positively electrified likewise; but if the jar be charged negatively, the electricity communicated by it to the air, will become also negative. A charged jar being held in one hand, and the flame of an insulated candle held in the other being brought near the knob of the jar, will also produce the same effect.

To Spin Sealing-wax into Threads by Electricity.

Stick a small piece of sealing-wax on the end of a wire, and set fire to it. Then put an electrical machine in motion, and present the wax just blown at the distance of some inches from the prime conductor. A number of extremely fine filaments will immediately dart from the sealing-wax to the conductor, on which they will be condensed into a kind of net-work, resembling wool.

If the wire with the sealing-wax be struck into one of the holes of the conductor, and a piece of paper be presented at a moderate distance from the wax, just after it has been ignited, on setting the machine in motion, a net-work of wax will be formed on the paper. The same effect, but in a slighter degree, will be produced, if the paper be briskly rubbed with a piece of

elastic gum, and the melting sealing-wax be pretty near the paper immediately after rubbing.

If the paper thus painted, as it were, with sealingwax, be gently warmed by holding the back of it to the fire, the wax will adhere to it, and the result of the experiment will thus be rendered permanent.

The Electrified Camphor.

A beautiful experiment of the same nature is made with camphor. A spoon holding a piece of lighted camphor is made to communicate with an electrified body, as the prime conductor of a machine; while the conductor continues electrified by keeping the machine in motion, the camphor will throw out ramifications, and appear to shoot like a vegetable.

ELECTRICAL AMUSEMENTS IN THE DARK CHAMBER.

To exhibit a great number of pleasing and surprising amusements in the dark, as well as in the light, is the peculiar property of electricity: for though there are many beautiful experiments performed in the camera obscura, it is still by the aid of the sun's rays, or those of a candle or lamp: whereas, the electric apparatus contains within itself the particles of the fire by which these amusements are performed.

The Fiery Shower.

On the plate put a number of any kind of seeds, grains of sand, or brass dust. The conductor being strongly electrified, those light particles will be attracted and repelled by the plate suspended from the conductor, with amasing rapidity, so as to exhibit a perfect fiery shower.

Another way is, by a sponge that has been soaked in water. When this sponge is first hung to the conductor, the water will drop from it very slowly; but when it is electrified, the drops will fall very fast, and