The object of the experiments related in this paper, is to trace the source of the electricity which accompanies the issue of steam of high pressure from the vessels in which it is contained. By means of a suitable apparatus, which the author describes and de- lineates, he found that electricity is never excited by the passage of pure steam, and is manifested only when water is at the same time present ; and hence he concludes that it is altogether the effect of the friction of globules of water against the sides of the opening, or against the substances opposed to its passage, as the water is rapidly moved onwards by the current of steam. Accordingly it was found to be increased in quantity by increasing the pressure and impelling force of the steam. The immediate effect of this friction was, in all cases, to render the steam or water positive, and the solids, of whatever nature they might be, negative. In certain cir- cumstances, however, as when a wire is placed in the current of steam at some distance from the orifice whence it has issued, the solid exhibits the positive electricity already acquired by the steam, and of which it is then merely the recipient and the conductor. In like manner, the results may be greatly modified by the shape, the nature, and the temperature of the passages through which the steam is forced. Heat, by preventing the condensation of the steam into water, likewise prevents the evolution of electricity, which again speedily appears by cooling the passages so as to restore the water which is necessary for the production of that effect. The phenomenon of the evolution of electricity in these circumstances is dependent also on the quality of the fluid in motion, more espe- cially in relation to its conducting power. Water will not excite electricity unless it be pure ; the addition to it of any soluble salt or acid, even in minute quantity, is sufiicient to destroy this pro- perty. The addition of oil of turpentine, on the other hand, occa- sions the development of electricity of an opposite kind to that which is excited by water ; and this the author explains by the par- ticles or minute globules of the water having each received a coat- ing of oil in the form of a thin film, so that the friction takes place only between that external film and the solids, along the surface of which the globules are carried. A similar, but a more permanent effect is produced by the presence of olive oil, which is not, like oil of turpentine, subject to rapid dissipation.
Similar results were obtained when a stream of compressed air was substituted for steam in these experiments. When moisture was present, the solid exhibited negative, and the stream of air po- sitive electricity ; but when the air was perfectly dry, no electricity of any kind was apparent. The author concludes with an account of some experiments in which dry powders of various kinds were placed in the current of air ; the results differed according to the nature of the substances employed, and other circumstances.
