Page:On the various forces of nature and their relations to each other.djvu/160

156 between those leaves, even before they come in contact. If I bring them sufficiently near when they are in communication with the ends of the battery, they will be drawn gently together; and you will know when this takes place, because the power will cause the gold leaves to burn away, which they could only do when they touched each other. Now, I am going to cause these two leaves of gold to approach gradually, and I have no doubt that some of you will see that they approach before they burn; and those who are too far off to see them approach will see by their burning that they have come together. Now they are attracting each other, long before the connection is complete; and there they go! burnt up in that brilliant flash—so strong is the force. You thus see, from the attractive force at the two ends of this battery, that these are really and truly electrical phenomena.

Now, let us consider what is this spark. I take these two ends and bring them together, and there I get this glorious spark, like the sunlight in the heavens above us. What is this? It is the same thing which you saw