common stock being likewise cut off, he
retains the additional quantity received. To _C_, standing on the
floor, both appear to be electrized; for he, having only the middle
quantity of electrical fire, receives a spark upon approaching _B_,
who has an over quantity; but gives one to _A_, who has an under
quantity. If _A_ and _B_ approach to touch each other, the spark is
stronger, because the difference between them is greater. After such
touch there is no spark between either of them and _C_, because the
electrical fire in all is reduced to the original equality. If they
touch while electrizing, the equality is never destroyed, the fire
only circulating. Hence have arisen some new terms among us. We say
_B_ (and bodies like circumstanced) is electrized _positively_; _A_,
_negatively_. Or rather, _B_ is electrized _plus_; _A_, _minus_. And
we daily in our experiments electrize bodies _plus_ or _minus_, as we
think proper. To electrize _plus_ or _minus_ no more needs to be
known than this: that the parts of the tube or sphere that are
rubbed do, in the instant of the friction, attract the electrical
fire, and therefore take it from the thing rubbing; the same parts
immediately, as the friction upon them ceases, are disposed to give
the fire they have received to any body that has less. Thus you may
circulate it as Mr. Watson has shown; you may also accumulate it or
subtract it, upon or from any body, as you connect that body with
the rubber or with the receiver, the communication with the common
stock being cut off. We think that ingenious gentleman was deceived
when he imagined (in his _Sequel_) that the electrical fire came
down the wire from the ceiling to the gun-barrel, thence to the
sphere, and so electrized the machine and the man turning the wheel,
etc. We suppose it was _driven off_, and not brought on through that
wire; and that the machine and man, etc., were electrized
_minus_--that is, had less electrical fire in them than things in
common.

"As the vessel is just upon sailing, I cannot give you so large an
account of American electricity as I intended; I shall only mention
a few particulars more. We find granulated lead better to fill the
vial with than water, being easily warmed, and keeping warm and dry
in damp air. We fire spirits with the wire of the vial. We light