and at whatever distance you see the light you may draw
off the electrical fire and destroy the repellency. If a cork ball
so suspended be repelled by the tube, and a point be presented quick
to it, though at a considerable distance, it is surprising to see
how suddenly it flies back to the tube. Points of wood will do near
as well as those of iron, provided the wood is not dry, for
perfectly dry wood will no more conduct electricity than
sealing-wax.

"To show that points will _throw off_ as well as _draw off_ the
electrical fire, lay a long sharp needle upon the shot, and you
cannot electrize the shot so as to make it repel the cork ball. Or
fix a needle to the end of a suspended gun-barrel or iron rod so as
to point beyond it like a little bayonet, and while it remains there
the gun-barrel or rod cannot, by applying the tube to the other end,
be electrized so as to give a spark, the fire continually running
out silently at the point. In the dark you may see it make the same
appearance as it does in the case before mentioned.

"The repellency between the cork ball and the shot is likewise
destroyed, 1st, by sifting fine sand on it--this does it gradually;
2dly, by breathing on it; 3dly, by making a smoke about it from
burning wood; 4thly, by candle-light, even though the candle is at a
foot distance--these do it suddenly. The light of a bright coal from
a wood fire, and the light of a red-hot iron, do it likewise, but
not at so great a distance. Smoke from dry rosin dropped on hot iron
does not destroy the repellency, but is attracted by both shot and
cork ball, forming proportionable atmospheres round them, making
them look beautifully, somewhat like some of the figures in Burnet's
or Whiston's _Theory of the Earth_.

"N.B.--This experiment should be made in a closet where the air is
very still, or it will be apt to fail.

"The light of the sun thrown strongly upon both cork and shot by a
looking-glass, for a long time together, does not impair the
repellency in the least. This difference between firelight and
sunlight is another thing that seems new and extraordinary to us.

"We had for some time been of opinion that the electrical fire was
not created by friction, but collected, being really an element
diffused among and attracted by other matter, particularly by water