Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/52

34 lift them into the air: they forcibly drive each other apart, producing a wide divergence.

Cut several strips, so as to form a kind of tassel. Hold them together at one end. Separate them from the board, and lift them into the air: they are driven asunder by the self-repellent electricity, presenting



an appearance which may remind you of the hair of Medusa. The effect is represented in Fig. 9.

And now you must learn to determine with certainty the quality of the electricity with which any body presented to you may be charged. You see immediately that attraction is no sure test, because unelectrified bodies are attracted. Further on you will be able to grapple with another possible source of error in the employment of attraction.



In determining quality, you must ascertain, by trial, the kind of electricity by which the charged body is repelled; if, for example, any electrified body repel, or is repelled by, sealing-wax rubbed with