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Rh to electrical theory, amongst them being an ingenious null method by which the law of inverse squares was proved to a high degree of accuracy. He also was the first to make quantitative measurements in electrical resistance—one of his experiments gave the specific resistance of water as four hundred million times that of iron.

Cavendish, about 1775, showed that the capacity for a condenser depends not only on its geometrical shape and dimensions, but also on the dielectric employed, and that the capacity is greater when solid dielectrics take the place of air. Cavendish's results were not published at the time, and only verbally did his contemporaries know anything of his work. Sixty-two years afterwards Faraday investigated the phenomena of condensers.

In his wildest dreams, however, Cavendish cannot have anticipated that in less than a century after his death a service of electric cars would be passing Cavendish House. Most likely the recluse would not have liked the prospect if the idea had occurred to him, as he hated "noise and bustle."

Cavendish lived a life of perfect retirement in Cavendish House. Society was a bore to him; he received no strangers, and held no communication with female servants. His horror of women was extreme. He ordered his dinner by leaving a note on the hall table every day; and orders were given that no female servant