ABSTRACT
In the eighteenth century there had been no such thing as static electricity: what people call static electricity was simply electricity; it was the only kind. This picture changed with work at the end of the century by two Italians, Giuseppe Galvani and Alessandro Volta, who between them ended up convincing philosophers that there was an electrical fluid that flowed. This chapter describes the use of the apparatus that generates and manifests the action of this propelled fluid. The cylinders are attended with advantage, that they may be employed for experiments either in an erect, inclined, or lying position, or even immersed in water, provided the top of it be above the surface of the fluid: they might also give a shock when entirely immersed if they contained a greater number of plates, or if several of these cylinders were joined together, and if there were any interruption that could be removed at pleasure.
