Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 November 1892 — Electricity of Waterfalls. [ARTICLE]

Electricity of Waterfalls.

From many observations and experiments, Mons. Philip Lenard finds that drops of water falling upon water or wet bodies generate electricity, the water becoming electrified positively and the air negatively electrified from the foot of the fall. Slight impurities in the water diminish the effect considerably. The essential condition* of electrification are the concussions among the drops themselves and against the wet rock, no effect being due to the water’s fall through the air and its dispersion by it. A jet of water falling from an insulated tank to an insulated nail electrified the latter positively, while the negative electrification of the surrounding air grew to several hundred volts. Sparks were obtained from waterfalls.—[Trenton (N. J.) American.