The Illuminated Cylinder
Provide a glass cylinder, three feet long, and three inches diameter;
near the bottom of it fix a brass plate, and have another brass plate,
so contrived that you may let it down the cylinder, and bring it as
near the first plate as you desire. Let this cylinder be exhausted and
insulated, and when the upper part is electrified, the electric matter
will pass from one plate to the other, when they are at the greatest
distance from each other that the cylinder will admit. The brass plate
at the bottom of the cylinder will also be as strongly electrified as
if it were connected by a wire to the prime conductor.
The electric matter, as it passes through this vacuum, presents a most
brilliant spectacle, exhibiting sparkling flashes of fire the whole
length of the tube, and of a bright silver hue, representing the most
lively exhalations of the aurora borealis.