On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences

The manner in which friction is performed also alters the kind of electricity. Equal lengths of black and white ribbon applied longitudinally to one another, and drawn between the finger and thumb so as to rub their surfaces together, become electric. When separated the white ribbon is found to have acquired positive electricity, and the black negative; but if the whole length of the black ribbon be drawn across the breadth of the white, the black will be positively and the white negatively electric when separated. The friction of the rubber on the glass plate of the electrifying machine produces abundance of static electricity. The friction of the steam on the valve of an insulated locomotive steam-engine produces seven times the quantity of electricity that an electrifying machine would do with a plate three feet in diameter, worked at the rate of 70 revolutions in a minute. Pressure is a source of electricity which M. Becquerel has found to be common to all bodies; but it is necessary to separate them to prevent the reunion of the electricities. When two substances of any kind whatever are insulated and pressed together they assume different electric states, but they only show contrary electricities when one of them is a good conductor.