Page:Various Forces of Matter.djvu/125

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ELECTRICAL ATTRACTION.
113

which we may not use. Here are some indicators (fig. 36).

Fig. 36.

I bend round a strip of paper into a hoop, and we have as good an indicator as can be required; see how it rolls along, travelling after the sealing-wax. If I make them smaller, of course we have them running faster, and sometimes they are actually attracted up into the air. Here also is a little collodion balloon. It is so electrical that it will scarcely leave my hand unless to go to the other. See, how curiously electrical it is; it is hardly possible for me to touch it without making it electrical; and here is a piece which clings to anything it is brought near, and which it is not easy to lay down. And here is another substance, gutta-percha, in thin strips; it is astonishing how by rubbing this in your hands you make it electrical; but our time forbids us to go further into