Appendix.

73

rally lose its Electricity in less than fiveMinutes, by attracting to it a sufficientQuantity of Moisture, to conduct the elec-tric Fluid from all Parts of its Surface tothe Floor. But if, immediately after it isexcited, it be placed in the fame Mannerbefore a good Fire, at the Distance of abouttwo Feet, where no Moisture will adhereto its Surface, it will continue electrical awhole Day; and how much longer I knownot. It may not be improper to mentionhere, that if a solid Cylinder of Class beset before the Fire till quite dry, it may aseasily be excited as a Glass Tube, and willact like one in every Respect: The firstStroke will make it strongly Electrical.

In a Paper I laid before the Royal Society■,on the 6th of December last, I conjectured,that the Electricity of the Atmosphere mightbe observed even in the Winter; which Ihave since found to be true : For in thesucceeding Months of January , February ,and March , my Apparatus was electrifiedno less than twenty-five Times, both posi-tively and negatively, by Snow, as wellas by Hail and Rain; and to almost as great* a Degree when Fahrenheit’s Thermometer1 was between 28 and 54, as I ever knew1, it in the Summer, except in a Thunder-s' Storm,

I SHALL