This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1879 Excerpt: ...It must be observed that in those spaces in which we supposed the fluid to be moveable, as in the space ABba for example, though the fluid is able to move freely from the plane Ah to ab, that is, though it moves freely in the direction Aa or aA, or in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the plate, yet it must not ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1879 Excerpt: ...It must be observed that in those spaces in which we supposed the fluid to be moveable, as in the space ABba for example, though the fluid is able to move freely from the plane Ah to ab, that is, though it moves freely in the direction Aa or aA, or in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the plate, yet it must not be able to move lengthways, or from A to B, for if it could, and one end of the plate AE was electrified, some fluid would instantly flow from AE to BD, and make that end overcharged, which is well known not to be the case. The same thing must be observed also with regard to the two former ways of explaining this phenomenon. 353 The chief reason which induces me to prefer the latter way of accounting for it is that in the two former ways the thickness of the spaces in which the fluid is moveable must necessarily be very considerable. In thick glass, for example, in a plate of the same thickness as D, it must be not less than-of an inch in the first way of explaining it, and in the second way it must be still greater. Now if the electric fluid is able to move through so great a space in the direction AE, it seems extraordinary that it should not be able to move in the direction AB, whereas in the latter way of accounting for it the thickness of the spaces in which the electricity is moveable may be supposed infinitely small, and consequently the' distance through which the electricity moves in the direction AE also infinitely small. 354 Another thing which inclines me to this way of accounting for it is that there seems some analogy between this and the power by which a particle of light is alternately attracted and repelled many times in its approach towards the surface of any refracting or reflecting medium. See Mr Michell's explanation Prop...
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