Page:On the various forces of nature and their relations to each other.djvu/149

145 jar, or any other arrangement which gives us this power, and arrange wires so that they may carry the power to the place I wish; and then placing a little gunpowder on the extremities of the wires, the moment I make the connection by this discharging rod, I shall fire the gunpowder. [The connection was made, and the gunpowder ignited.] And if I were to shew you a stool like this, and were to explain to you its construction, you could easily understand that we use glass legs, because these are capable of preventing the electricity from going away to the earth. If, therefore, I were to stand on this stool, and receive the electricity through this conductor, I could give it to anything that I touched. [The Lecturer stood upon the insulating stool, and placed himself in connection with the conductor of the machine.] Now, I am electrified—I can feel my hair rising up as the paper tassel did just now. Let us see whether I can succeed in lighting gas by touching the jet with my finger. [The Lecturer brought his finger near a jet from which gas was issuing, when, after one or two attempts, the spark which came from his finger to the jet set fire to the