Page:Various Forces of Matter.djvu/138

126 see the electricity passing through the air as a brilliant spark. It takes no sensible time to pass through this, and if I were to take a long metallic wire, no matter what the length, at least as far as we are concerned; and if I make one end of it touch the outside, and the other touch the knob at the top—see how the electricity passes!—it has flashed instantaneously through the whole length of this wire. Is not this different from the transmission of heat through this copper-bar (fig. 42), which has taken a quarter of an hour or more to reach the first ball?

Here is another experiment, for the purpose of showing the conductibility of this power through some bodies and not through others. Why do I have this arrangement made of brass? [pointing to the brass work of the electrical machine, fig. 41]. Because it conducts electricity. And why do I have these columns made of glass? Because they obstruct the passage of electricity. And why do I put that paper tassel (fig. 43) at the top of the pole, upon a glass rod, and connect it with this machine by means of a wire? You see at once that as soon as the handle of the machine is turned, the electricity