The American journal of science and arts . ent is uncomfortable with dry hands; butwhen the secondary current is used, it is painful to touch thepoles, even with the fingers. It causes the gold leaves of the elec-troscope to diverge strongly, without the aid of a leyden jar, or ex-tended, insulated metallic surfaces. It charges a leyden jar at ev-ery touch. A charcoal point on the knob of the jar, affords a brightlight at every touch. I have some time since shown, that theshocks and decompositions produced by the secondary current offlat spirals and helices in connexion with a single pair of p
The American journal of science and arts . ent is uncomfortable with dry hands; butwhen the secondary current is used, it is painful to touch thepoles, even with the fingers. It causes the gold leaves of the elec-troscope to diverge strongly, without the aid of a leyden jar, or ex-tended, insulated metallic surfaces. It charges a leyden jar at ev-ery touch. A charcoal point on the knob of the jar, affords a brightlight at every touch. I have some time since shown, that theshocks and decompositions produced by the secondary current offlat spirals and helices in connexion with a single pair of plates,were greatly increased, if the surface of the mercury, (or solidconductor,) from which the circuit is broken, be covered withpure water or naphtha. I have since found that oil gives a fargreater increase than either. The rationale is now the battery circuit is completed, (as shown by Faradaysdiscoveries of volta-electric induction,) a feeble secondary currentflows in a direction opposite to that of the battery. When the. New Magnetic Elediical Machine. 167 circuit is broken, a powerful secondary rushes in the same direc-tion with the primitive battery current. Hence the bright sparkis occasioned by the passage of the secondary through the heatedair, occasioned by the combustion of the mercury. Now, if thesurface of the metal is covered with a non-conducting liquid, suchas oil, the circuit is broken with precision, while an obstacle isoffered to the consequent and secondary current, and the greaterpart of it rushes through the body, or whatever conductor joinsthe extremities of the coil. The apphcation of this fact is ofgreat value in the use of the magneto-electric machine. If a dropof oil be put upon the break piece of the ingenious machine ofClarke, its power will be greatly increased, while it preserves agood contact by saving the metals from oxidation. I find also,that if the stratum of oil be very thin, the spark is more brilliantthan without it, being p
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