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. The science-history of the universe . Experiment of Cuneus : the Leyden Jar. From time to time it has been attempted to use for thedielectric materials other than glass, and thousands ofcondensers using paraffined paper are in use on moderntelephone and telegraph circuits. Larger condensers areused on power circuits. None of these other materials is,however, as satisfactory as glass, being liable to be dis-rupted if the pressure of the charge is too great. The op-portunities for using condensers to advantage are rapidly 172 ELECTRICITY increasing at present and considerable energy is beingdi
. The science-history of the universe . Experiment of Cuneus : the Leyden Jar. From time to time it has been attempted to use for thedielectric materials other than glass, and thousands ofcondensers using paraffined paper are in use on moderntelephone and telegraph circuits. Larger condensers areused on power circuits. None of these other materials is,however, as satisfactory as glass, being liable to be dis-rupted if the pressure of the charge is too great. The op-portunities for using condensers to advantage are rapidly 172 ELECTRICITY increasing at present and considerable energy is beingdirected toward their development. The desirable qualitiesof such a condenser are that its dielectric should be capableof containing a very large charge, that it should standvery high electric pressure without disruption, and that itscoatings should be in the most intimate contact with the. Battery of Leyden Jars. dielectric. In some recent condensers, made in Switzer-land, the metal coatings are made by chemically depositingsilver upon the inner and outer surfaces of the glass. The ancients, who knew nothing of electricity, couldnot conceive of thunder as anything but the result of apurely mechanical shock. Seneca, speaking of the factthat two hands struck together produced a loud noise, con-cluded from that that the collision of two enormous clouds ELECTROSTATICS 173 ought to sound with a very great crash. Again, he com-pares thunder, the sound of which is very sharp, evenpenetrating, to the noise made by the bursting of a bladderon a persons head. Lucretius also explains thunder bythe shaking of the clouds or their tearing asunder. The identity of lightning with electricity was first shownby Benjamin Franklin in a paper published in 1749, twoyears before his experiments with the storm clouds. Atthat epoch he had just recognised the power of ingenious experi
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjec, booksubjectcosmology