OF

ELECTRICITY, MAGNETISM,

AND

CHEMISTRY;

AND

GUARDIAN OF EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE.

CONDUCTED BY

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SUPERINTENDENT OF THE ROYAL VICTORIA GALLERY OF
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INDIA COMPANY'S MILITARY ACADEMY, ADDISCOMBE, ETC. ETC.;

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VOL. VIII.

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MDCCCXLII.

P. GRANT, PRINTER, CHRONICLE OFFICE, MANCHESTER.

OF

ELECTRICITY, MAGNETISM,

AND

CHEMISTRY;

AND

GUARDIAN OF EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE.

JANUARY, 1842.

Why do Electrised Bodies Recede from each other ?*
By CHARLES GRIFFIN, ESQ., M.L.E.S.

Read, in three parts, at the Electrical Society, Oct. 15th, Nov. 5th and 19th, 1839.

I shall in this, my third paper, (being the second on the above question,) attempt a somewhat more particular and definite explanation of the singular phenomenon of recession, according to the propositions at the end of my last paper.

I shall not pretend to go so far as to assert that this phenomenon must be explained entirely after my own manner, but endeavour to point out a mode that may perchance enable some electrician, versed in mathematics, to reconcile the doctrine of one electric fluid with the fact of the recession, not only of negatively, but also of positively electrified bodies, from each other, on principles long well known and established, without resorting to the mere assumption of a power of repulsion.

I have thought it best, considering my own ignorance of mathematics and the abstruseness of my subject, to err on the side of prolixity rather than on that of brevity; to risk saying something unnecessary, rather than leave anything necessary to my being understood, unsaid.

The greater portion of my second paper, read to the London Electrical Society, (published in the "Annals of Electricity," vol. 3, p. 126,) was contained in papers transmitted to the Royal Society, on the 7th of June, 1833. In the same papers was stated generally my opinion that the electric fluid possessed the power of homogeneous attraction, as also in a letter in the "Mechanics' Magazine" of 3rd November, 1836, under the signature of "Corpusculum." The inverted commas in my said second paper in the Annals were intended to indicate the parts comprised in the papers transmitted to the Royal Society, but those commas are unfortunately misplaced. They comprised the greater part of such second paper, particularly the 1st, 4th, 5th, 8th, 9th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 16th, and first seven words of the 14th propositions. I may be excused this note, in order to anticipate charges of plagiarism.-C. G.

Ann. of Elec.-Vol. VIII.—No. 1.—Jan,, 1842.

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