Electricity may be transferred from one body to another in the same manner as heat is communicated, and like it too the body loses by the transmission.
Although no substance is altogether impervious to electricity, nor is there any that does not offer some resistance to its passage, yet it moves with more facility through a certain class of substances called conductors, such as metals, water, the human body, &c., than through atmospheric air, glass, silk, &c., which are therefore called non-conductors. The conducting power is affected both by temperature and moisture. The terrestrial globe is a conductor on account of its moisture, though dry earth is not. Though metals are the best conductors of electricity, it affects their molecular structure, for the heat which accompanies its passage acts as a transverse expansive force, which increases their breadth by diminishing their length, as may be seen by passing electricity through a platinum wire sufficiently thick to resist fusion. Through air the force is disruptive on account of its non-conducting quality, and it seems to act chemically on the oxygen, producing the substance known as ozone during its passage through the atmosphere. If a conductor be good and of sufficient size the electricity passes imperceptibly but it is shivered to pieces in an instant if it be a bad conductor or too small to carry off the charge. In that case the physical change is generally a separation of the particles, or expansion from the heat, as in trees, where it turns the moisture into steam, but all these effects are in proportion to the obstacles opposed to the freedom of its course.
Bodies surrounded by non-conductors are said to be insulated, because when charged the electricity cannot escape. When that is not the case, the electricity is conveyed to the earth: consequently it is impossible to accumulate electricity in a conducting substance that is not insulated. There are a great many substances called non-electrics in which electricity is not sensibly developed by friction unless they be insulated, because it is carried off by their conducting power as soon as elicited. Metals, for example, which are said to be non-electrics can be excited, but being conductors they cannot retain this state if in communication with the earth. It is probable that no bodies exist which are either perfect non-electrics or perfect non-conductors. But it is evident that electrics must be non-conductors to a certain degree, otherwise they could not retain their electric state.