but. the only rubber, for a long time, was the dry hand of theexperimenter, till Mr. Winckler of Leipsic, in 1750, intro-duced the cushion, to which a silk flap was added, with anamalgam to increase the effect of friction.

About the year 1734, Stephen Gray discovered that onsuspending pieces of metal on silken lines or attached toglass, and electrifying them, they gave sparks, which wasthe origin of metallic conductors.

The accumulation of the electrive power by means of coatedjars , was accidentally discovered by M. Von Kleist, Dean ofthe Cathedral in Commin, in 1745. An experiment of asimilar kind, though under improved circumstances, wasafterwards made at Leyden, by Mr. Cuneus, which beingattended with success, procured for it the name of the Ley-den Phial. Mr. Gralath, a German electrician, contrived aplan to increase the strength of the shock, by altering theshape and size of the phial, and also by charging severalphials at the same time, so as to form what is now called theelectrical battery.

The discovery of the identity of lightning with the electricfire was made by Franklin; and to him we owe the prac-tical application of this discovery, in securing buildings fromthe damage of lightning, by the erection of metalline con-ductors j for although the fact of the power of points to at-tract the electric fluid from a great distance was not unknownto the ancients, yet it had long sunk into oblivion.

Electricity was first applied to medical purposes by Krat-zenstein, at Halle, in 1744.

ELL, a standard or measure for cloth, first determined bythe length of Henry I. ’s arm, in 1101.

EMBALMING. This mode of preventing the putrifyingof dead bodies by means of balm and other odoriferousdrugs, was early adopted by the Egyptians, and we find