Positive electricity

“ The next point worthy of notice is that whenever one electricity is produced, just as much is produced of an opposite description. Thus, in the case of glass excited by silk, we have positive electricity developed upon the glass, while we have also negative electricity developed upon the silk to precisely the same extent. And, again, when sealing-wax is rubbed with flannel, we have negative electricity developed upon the sealing-wax, and just as much positive upon the flannel. ”

“ But if the body has been electrified it will communicate the electricity to the rod inside, and attract to itself the fluid of opposite quality; the same kind of electricity then is in action in the gold-leaf or needles, and they fly apart—repel each other. Supposing that positive electricity were first communicated, we can cause the contraction of the leaves or wires by applying a negative kind, which, meeting the positive, neutralizes it, and the wires collapse. ”

“ It will be found that a current of positive electricity circulates round the bar, in the direction of the arrow-head, going from the bismuth to the copper across the heated junction, the existence of which may be detected by means of a compass needle, as we see in the figure.
Here, then, we have a case in which heat energy goes out of existence, and is converted into that of an electric current, and we may even arrange matters so as to make, on this principle, an instrument which shall be an extremely delicate test of the existence of heat. ”

“ The electrical glow is therefore produced by the constant passage of electricity through a small portion of air in which the tension is very high, so as to charge the surrounding particles of air which are continually swept off by the electric wind, which is an essential part of the phenomenon.
The glow is more easily formed in rare air than in dense air, and more easily when the point is positive than when it is negative. This and many other differences between positive and negative electrification must be studied by those who desire to discover some thing about the nature of electricity. ”

“ When the electrification is positive, that is, according to the usual convention, vitreous, will be a positive quantity. When the electrification is negative or resinous, will be negative, and the quantity may be interpreted either as a negative quantity of vitreous electricity or as a positive quantity of resinous electricity. ”

“ The electricity from glass is sometimes called vitreous, and that from sealing-wax resinous, electricity, but more frequently the former is known as positive, and the latter as negative, electricity—it being understood that these words do not imply the possession of a positive nature by the one influence, or of a negative nature by the other, but are merely terms employed to express the apparent antagonism which exists between the two kinds of electricity. ”

“ Upon What the Kind of Electricity Excited Depends.—It depends on what a substance is rubbed with whether vitreous or resinous electricity is excited in it. Thus smooth glass rubbed with woolen cloth or silk will be positively electrified; while if it be rubbed upon the back of a cat it will exhibit negative or resinous electricity. So, also, if a resin, as gumlac or sealing-wax, [290] be rubbed with silk or woolen cloth, it will be charged with resinous electricity, but it will be charged with vitreous or positive if it be rubbed with sulphur. ”

“ But this supply is immediately procured from the surrounding atmosphere. The quantity sent off is instantaneously returned from the air, and a vibratory motion or struggle between the air and electric fluid, immediately takes place. The positive electricity therefore consists in a vibratory motion in the air and electric fluid; and the force of the vibration is directed outwards from the electrified body. In bodies negatively electrified, the fluid contained in the neighbouring atmosphere is directed towards the body so electrified. ”

“ You cannot get “positive” without negative electricity. “Positive” is the term applied to the kind produced by rubbing glass with silk or wool; “negative” is the term applied to the kind developed by rubbing sealing-wax, but the kind developed by friction depends on the rubbing substance and certain conditions.
Bodies charged with the same electricity repel; if charged with different kinds they attract each other. The more readily displaced particles when bodies are rubbed become negatively electrified as a rule. ”

“ In recent years many persons have been restored to health and strength by the direct use of electric currents, and many diseases have been cured by electric appliances.
The necessity for an ample supply of electricity, both positive and negative, to sustain and preserve the life of the bodily machine is now acknowledged by all thinking scientists. ”

“ Electricity is of two kinds, positive and negative. The difference is, I presume, that one kind comes a little more expensive, but is more durable; the other is a cheaper thing, but the moths get into it. ”

“ It may be made a prolific source of heat for warming cars, and even for the welding of iron and steel. The electric fan cools our parlors and offices in summer, and the electric bell simplifies household service. In fact, it would appear that, in contrasting the electrical beginnings with the electrical endings of the nineteenth century, the space of a thousand rather than a hundred years had intervened, and that in measuring the agents which conduce to human comfort and convenience, electricity is easily the most potential. ”

“ Each has a higher potential than the acid, but their potentials are not the same. This electrification tends to pass from the place of higher to the place of lower potential, and the conducting wire allows this transfer to take place. As the difference of potential is kept up by the continued chemical action, the current is continuous, and not simply instantaneous, as in discharges of frictional electricity. As heat is produced by the burning of coal, so electrification is produced by the chemical burning of zinc. ”

“ Physiological effects.—The power of the common electric current to shock and convulse the animal system, and when weak to affect the tongue and the eyes, may be considered as the same with the similar power of voltaic electricity, account being taken of the intensity of the one electricity and duration of the other. ”

“ In order, however, to carry the proof of the identity of these forms of energy beyond the sphere of vague analogy, we must follow up electricity far beyond the simple manifestations of the glass rod and sealing-wax, and pursue it to its origin, in the transformations of chemical action and mechanical work, in the voltaic battery, the electric telegraph, the telephone, and the dynamo. ”

“ By proper appliances, the heat of resistance can be applied just where it is needed, and many commercial processes depend upon electricity for their success. Dynamos are used to generate currents for lighting and heating purposes. ”

“ On the Rio Grande River in Colorado they are constructing several plants where water power will be utilized to generate electricity for use more than one hundred and fifty miles away. For transmitting electricity to such a distance they step up the voltage, or electro-motive force as it is called, to 100,000 volts. ”

“ It is often desirable to utilize the electric current for the production of heat. For example, trolley cars are heated by coils of wire under the seats. The coils offer so much resistance to the passage of a strong current through them that they become heated and warm the cars.
FIG. 201.—An electric iron on a metal stand.
Some modern houses are so built that electricity is received into them from the great plants where it is generated, and by merely turning a switch or inserting a plug, electricity is constantly available. ”

“ When one stands on the bank of the river and sees the great waterfall as it plunges over the precipice, exerting a force of from five to ten million horse-power, one is overwhelmed in contemplation of its possibilities as a source of energy that may be converted into work, mechanical and chemical, through the medium of electricity.
The genius of man has devised a way by which some of this constantly wasting energy may be converted into electricity and distributed to different points to perform various kinds of work. ”

“ Ritchie's paper, from which the following are extracts: "Common electricity is diffused over the surface of the metal;—voltaic electricity exists within the metal. Free electricity is conducted over the surface of the thinnest gold leaf as effectually as over a mass of metal having the same surface;—voltaic electricity requires thickness of metal for its conduction," p. ”

“ This attractive Power of Electricity acts not only upon Non-electrics, as Leaf-Gold, Silver, Thread, and such like, but also upon originally Electrics, as Silk, dry Feathers, little Pieces of Glass and Resin; it attracts all Bodies, that are not of the same Standard of Electricity, (if I may be allowed the Expression) as the excited Body from which it proceeds. I have found no Body however dense, whose Pores are not pervious to Electricity by a proper Management, not even Gold itself. ”

“ Fig. 117. Arc-Lighting Circuit.
A high voltage is necessary in order to cause the current to leap across the gap made by the separation of the electrodes
p. 166
The Incandescent System.—This method is entirely different from the arc system. It has been stated that certain metals conduct electricity with greater facility than others, and some have higher resistance than others. If a certain amount of electricity is forced through some metals, they will become heated. ”

“ If, therefore, we place an electric upon any of those non-conducting bodies, the air around being well dried, we are enabled to gather a large quantity of the force for the production of any particular effect. Taking advantage of this fact, arrangements are made for the accumulation and liberation at pleasure of any amount of electricity. ”

“ Can we conduct from one place to another this peculiar state of things, this queer form of potential energy which we call electrification? It is clear, from the last experiments, that in order to do it we need something besides ebonite, which really acts like a closed stop-cock to the flow of electrification.
To keep electrification in one place we need an insulator; to get it from one place to another we need a conductor. Insulators are as important as conductors. ”

“ The electrical transmission of power is exemplified in everything which is based on the generation of electricity. The ordinary electric light is power coming from a generator in the building or a public street-dynamo.
However, when we talk in general terms of electric transmission we mean the transmission of energy on a large scale by means of overhead or underground conductors to a considerable distance and the transformation of this energy into light and heat and chemical or mechanical power to carry on the processes of work and industry. ”

“ A weaker current of electricity than what is required for deflecting needles or magnetising iron, suffices to effect the requisite chemical decomposition. The conducting power of vapour or rain carries much of the electricity from the wires in certain states of the atmosphere ”

“ The solar cell produces electricity when hole-electron pairs are formed. Any other phenomenon that creates such pairs will also generate electricity. The source of energy is irrelevant so long as the current carriers are formed near the junction. ”

“ Christie are also mentioned by Noad, who quotes from Oersted’s treatise on “Thermo-Electricity” the statement of the Danish philosopher “that the most efficacious excitation of electricity upon the earth appears to be produced by the sun, causing daily evaporation, deoxidation and heat, all of which excite electrical currents.” ”

“ If the two wires attached to the plates are now connected with electric lamps, or a motor, or other device, the active material will develop energy in the effort to again change its nature. This energy takes the form of an electric current, which leaves the battery and passes through the conductors and operates the lamps, motors, or other devices in its passage. ”

“ In the case of the conducting wire we have the same transfer of electricity from a place of high to a place of low potential without any external work being done. The principle of the Conservation of Energy therefore leads us to look for internal work in the conductor. In an electrolyte this internal work consists partly of the separation of its components. In other conductors it is entirely converted into heat. ”

“ The horizontal Distance in this Case between the glass Tube and the Spirit was at least ten Feet.
You all know, that there is the repulsive Power of Electricity, as well as the attractive; inasmuch as you are able, when a Feather or such-like light Substance is replete with Electricity, to drive it about a Room, which Way you please. This repulsive Power continues, until either the Tube loses its excited Force, or the Feather attracts the Moisture from the Air, or comes near to some non-electric Substance ”

“ In fact, this element of heterogeneity is an all important one in electrical development, and this leads us to conjecture that electrical attraction may probably be regarded as peculiarly allied to that force which we call chemical affinity. At any rate, electricity and chemical affinity are only manifested between bodies that are, in some respects, dissimilar. ”

“ The electric power, observed by the ancients only in amber, and perhaps the tourmaline, was in process of time found to be in glass, rosin, silk, and several other substances. By degrees it was discovered, that very strong signs of electricity were exhibited by a number of animals. The experiment of producing sparks of electrical fire, by rubbing the back of a cat in frosty weather, proved that electricity might exist in a very active state in the bodies of animals, without injuring their functions. From animals of an inferior kind a transition was made to the human species. ”