For the retention of electrical charges nothing has been devised more perfect than the Leyden jar. The principal part of the loss arises from the electricity creeping along the damp uncoated surface of the glass from the one coating to the other. This may be checked in a great degree by artificially drying the air within the jar, and by varnishing the surface of the glass where it is exposed to the atmosphere. In Sir W. Thomsons electroscopes there is a very small percentage of loss from day to day, and I believe that none of this loss can be traced to direct conduction either through air or through glass when the glass is good, but that it arises chiefly from superficial conduction along the various insulating stems and glass surfaces of the instrument.
In fact, the same electrician has communicated a charge to sulphuric acid in a large bulb with a long neck, and has then hermetically sealed the neck by fusing it, so that the charge was completely surrounded by glass, and after some years the charge was found still to be retained.
It is only, however, when cold, that glass insulates in this way, for the charge escapes at once if the glass is heated to a temperature below 100°C.
When it is desired to obtain great capacity in small compass, accumulators in which the dielectric is sheet caoutchouc, mica, or paper impregnated with paraffin are convenient.
227.] For accumulators of the second class, intended for the measurement of quantities of electricity, all solid dielectrics must be employed with great caution on account of the property which they possess called Electric Absorption.
The only safe dielectric for such accumulators is air, which has this inconvenience, that if any dust or dirt gets into the narrow space between the opposed surfaces, which ought to be occupied only by air, it not only alters the thickness of the stratum of air, but may establish a connexion between the opposed surfaces, in which case the accumulator will not hold a charge.
To determine in absolute measure, that is to say in feet or metres, the capacity of an accumulator, we must either first ascertain its form and size, and then solve the problem of the distribution of electricity on its opposed surfaces, or we must compare its capacity with that of another accumulator, for which this problem has been solved.
As the problem is a very difficult one, it is best to begin with an accumulator constructed of a form for which the solution is known.
