Electricity
No branch of science is more capable of affording amusement, combined with instruction, than electricity, and there are few sciences in which the experiments are more easily performed. We would therefore especially recommend it to our young friends.
The term electricity is derived from the Greek word electron, signifying amber, because electrical attraction was first discovered from its being noticed that when amber was rubbed into a certain degree of warmth, it had the power of attracting small bodies to itself.
Electricity therefore primarily treats of the phenomena and effects produced by the friction or rubbing together of certain bodies called electrics. These consist of glass, amber, resinous matters, silks, hair, wool, feathers, various vegetable substances, and atmospheric air, and the electricity so obtained is usually called Frictional Electricity, to distinguish it from that produced by chemical action, and called Voltaic Electricity.