DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6094#0266
SICILY AND MALTA. 243
found any conductor to carry it to her head
or body, in all probability she must have
been killed.— A good strong head of hair
if it is kept perfedly clean and dry, is
probably one of the bed preservatives
against tbe fire of lightning. But so soon
as it is sluffed full of powder and pomatum,
and bound together with pins, its repellent
force is lost, and it becomes a conductor *.
—But I beg pardon for these surmises:
I throw
* Since the writing of these letters, the author has
made some experiments on the electricity of hairj
which tend {till to convince him the more of what he
has advanced. A lady had told him, that on comb-
ing her hair in frosty weather, in the dark, she had
sometimes observed sparks of fire to issue from it. This
made him think of attempting to collect the electrical
fire from hair alone, without the assistance of any
other electrical apparatus. To this end, he desired a
young lady to stand on a cake of bees-wax, and to
comb her siller's hair, who was sitting on a chair be-
fore her.----Soon after she began to comb, the young
lady on the wax was greatly astonished to find her
whole body electrified ; darting out sparks of fire against
R 2 every
found any conductor to carry it to her head
or body, in all probability she must have
been killed.— A good strong head of hair
if it is kept perfedly clean and dry, is
probably one of the bed preservatives
against tbe fire of lightning. But so soon
as it is sluffed full of powder and pomatum,
and bound together with pins, its repellent
force is lost, and it becomes a conductor *.
—But I beg pardon for these surmises:
I throw
* Since the writing of these letters, the author has
made some experiments on the electricity of hairj
which tend {till to convince him the more of what he
has advanced. A lady had told him, that on comb-
ing her hair in frosty weather, in the dark, she had
sometimes observed sparks of fire to issue from it. This
made him think of attempting to collect the electrical
fire from hair alone, without the assistance of any
other electrical apparatus. To this end, he desired a
young lady to stand on a cake of bees-wax, and to
comb her siller's hair, who was sitting on a chair be-
fore her.----Soon after she began to comb, the young
lady on the wax was greatly astonished to find her
whole body electrified ; darting out sparks of fire against
R 2 every