The highly positive surface of the glass where it leaves the rubber is more attracted by the negative charge of the rubber than the partially discharged surface which is advancing towards the rubber. The electrical forces therefore act as a resistance to the force employed in turning the machine. The work done in turning the machine is therefore greater than that spent in overcoming ordinary friction and other resistances, and the excess is employed in producing a state of electrification whose energy is equivalent to this excess.
The work done in overcoming friction is at once converted into heat in the bodies rubbed together. The electrical energy may be also converted either into mechanical energy or into heat.
If the machine does not store up mechanical energy, all the energy will be converted into heat, and the only difference between the heat due to friction and that due to electrical action is that the former is generated at the rubbing surfaces while the latter may be generated in conductors at a distance[1].
We have seen that the electrical charge on the surface of the glass is attracted by the rubber. If this attraction were sufficiently intense there would be a discharge between the glass and the rubber, instead of between the glass and the collecting points. To prevent this, flaps of silk are attached to the rubber. These become negatively electrified and adhere to the glass, and so diminish the potential near the rubber.
The potential therefore increases more gradually as the glass moves away from the rubber, and therefore at any one point there is less attraction of the charge on the glass towards the rubber, and consequently less danger of direct discharge to the rubber.
In some electrical machines the moving part is of ebonite instead of glass, and the rubbers of wool or fur. The rubber is then electrified positively and the prime conductor negatively.
The Electrophorus of Volta.
208.] The electrophorus consists of a plate of resin or of ebonite backed with metal, and a plate of metal of the same size. An insulating handle can be screwed to the back of either of these plates. The ebonite plate has a metal pin which connects the metal
- ↑ It is probable that in many cases where dynamical energy is converted into heat by friction, part of the energy may be first transformed into electrical energy and then converted into heat as the electrical energy is spent in maintaining currents of short circuit close to the rubbing surfaces. See Sir W. Thomson. 'On the Electrodynamic Qualities of Metals'. Phil. Trans., 1856, p. 650.
