Page:A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism - Volume 1.djvu/74

34 We have thus obtained a method of charging a vessel with a quantity of electricity exactly equal and opposite to that of an electrified body without altering the electrification of the latter, and we may in this way, charge any number of vessels with exactly equal quantities of electricity of either kind, which we may take for provisional units.

32.] Let the vessel B, charged with a quantity of positive electricity, which we shall call, for the present, unity, be introduced into the larger insulated vessel C without touching it. It will produce a positive electrification on the outside of C. Now let B be made to touch the inside of C. No change of the external electrification will be observed. If B is now taken out of C without touching it, and removed to a sufficient distance, it will be found that B is completely discharged, and that C has become charged with a unit of positive electricity.

We have thus a method of transferring the charge of B to C.

Let B be now recharged with a unit of electricity, introduced into C already charged, made to touch the inside of C, and removed. It will be found that B is again completely discharged, so that the charge of C is doubled.

If this process is repeated, it will be found that however highly C is previously charged, and in whatever way B is charged, when B is first entirely enclosed in C, then made to touch C, and finally removed without touching C, the charge of B is completely transferred to C, and B is entirely free from electrification.

This experiment indicates a method of charging a body with any number of units of electricity. We shall find, when we come to the mathematical theory of electricity, that the result of this experiment affords an accurate test of the truth or the theory.

33.] Before we proceed to the investigation of the law of electrical force, let us enumerate the facts we have already established.

By placing any electrified system inside an insulated hollow conducting vessel, and examining the resultant effect on the outside of the vessel, we ascertain the character of the total electrification of the system placed inside, without any communication of electricity between the different bodies of the system.

The electrification of the outside of the vessel may be tested with great delicacy by putting it in communication with an electroscope.

We may suppose the electroscope to consist of a strip of gold