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An epitome of electricity and galvanism (1809)

Title: An epitome of electricity & galvanism Author: Two Gentlemen of Philadelphia Release date: December 19, 2024 [eBook #74933] Language: English Original publication: United States: Jane Aitken Credits: Charlene Taylor, Richard Tonsing, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) Transcriber’s Note: New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain. Fig.

We shall, however, content ourselves, in the conclusion, with only mentioning the electrophorus and condenser, invented by Mr. Alexander Volta, Professor of Experimental Philosophy at Como, &c. This last instrument is honorable to its inventor, not only on account of the extensively useful purposes to which it has been and may be applied; but, likewise, because it was discovered, not casually, like most of the electrical apparatus, but in consequence of scientific deduction and reasoning. Each of these plates was covered with more than a thousand seeds; I kept them electrified night and day, according to the method which Mr. Schewankhard directed, in a letter quoted by Mr. Elermann, but which I shall not repeat in this place, lest I should swell this memoir: the vegetation of these little shrubberies was always more or 63less precarious, in proportion to the greater or less quantity of light that they received; the electricity really contributing nothing to advance the growth: thus the controversy stands, we leave the reader to form his own opinion. Take a clean pane of glass, fourteen or fifteen inches square, and after drying it thoroughly, hold it by one corner, and pass over its surface the knob of a jar, moderately charged with positive electricity—then, keeping it suspended, project upon it, by means of the bottle above described, a mixed powder of dragon’s blood and gum-arabic, in equal parts.

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