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Dancing Balls and Dolls

Get two round pieces of wood, A B, and coat them with tinfoil ; or two pieces of metal plate ; attach one of them to the prime conductor by a chain, and let it hang about two or three inches from the knob. Place some pith-balls upon the bottom piece of wood B, and bring it under the other. Immediately this is done, and the upper piece is charged with electricity from the machine, the pith-balls will jump up and down, and from one to the other with great rapidity. If some of the pith be formed into little figures, they will also dance and leap about in the most grotesque manner. The same may be made to dance by merely holding the inside of a dry glass tumbler to the prime conductor for a few minutes, while the machine is in action, and then if this be placed over them they will jump about, to the astonishment of the spectators, as the cause of their motions is not quite so apparent.