The telegraph manual: a complete history and description of the semaphoric, electric and magnetic telegraphs of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, ancient and modern.

54 STATIC ELECTRICITY.
quence was, that he received a shock, which, though slight,
compared with such as are now frequently taken for amusement from the Leyden vial, his fright magnified and exaggerated in an amusing manner. In describing the effect produced
on himself, by taking the shook from a thin glass bowl, Muschenbroek stated in a letter to Reaumer, that "he felt himself
struck in his arms, shoulders, and breast, so that he lost his
breath, and was two days before he recovered from the effects
of the blow and the terror," adding, "he would not take a
second shock for the kingdom of France." M. Allamand, on
taking a shock, declared, " that he lost the use of his breath
for some minutes, and then felt so intense a pain along his
right arm, that he feared permanent injury from it." Winkler
stated, that the first time he underwent the experiment, " he
suffered great convulsions through his body; that it put his
blood into agitation; that he feared an ardent fever, and was
obliged to have recourse to cooling medicines!" The lady of
this professor took the shock twice, and was rendered so weak
by it, that she could hardly walk. The third time it gave her
bleeding at the nose. Such was the alarm with which these
early electricians were struck, by a sensation which thousands
have since experienced in a much more powerful manner, without the slightest inconvenience. It serves to show how cautious
we should be in receiving the first accounts of extraordinary
discoveries, where the imagination is likely to be affected.
After the first feelings of astonishment were somewhat abated,
the circumstances which influenced the force of the shock were
examined. Muschenbroek observed that the success of the
experiment was impaired if the glass was wet on the outer surface. Dr. Watson showed, that the shock might be transmitted through the bodies of several men touching each other, and
that the force of the charge depended on the extent of the external surface of the glass in contact with the hand of the
operator. Dr. Bevis proved that tin-foil might be substituted
successfully for the hand outside, and for the water inside the
jar; he coated panes of glass in this way, and found that they
would receive and retain a charge; and lastly, Dr. Watson
coated large jars inside and outside with tin-foil, and thus constructed what is now known as the Leyden vial.
FRANKLIN'S ELECTRICAL THEORIES.
It was in the year 1747, that, in consequence of a communication from Mr. Peter Collinson, a Fellow of the Royal Society
of London, to the Literary Society of Philadelphia, Franklin
first directed his attention to electricity; and from that period,