SECTION XXXII.

Electro-Dynamics-Reciprocal Action of Electric Currents-Identity of Electro-Dynamic Cylinders and Magnets-Differences between the Action of Voltaic Electricity and Electricity of Tension-Effects of a Voltaic Current-Ampère's Theory.

THE Science of electro-magnetism, which must render the name of M. Oersted ever memorable, relates to the reciprocal action of electrical and magnetic currents: M. Ampère, by discovering the mutual action of electrical currents on one another, has added a new branch to the subject, to which he has given the name of electro-dynamics.

When electric currents are passing through two conducting wires, so suspended or supported as to be capable of moving both toward and from one another, they show mutual attraction or repulsion, according as the currents are flowing in the same or in contrary directions; the phenomena varying with the relative inclinations and positions of the streams of electricity. The mutual action of such currents, whether they flow in the same or in contrary directions, whether they be parallel, perpendicular, diverging, converging, circular, or heliacal, all produce different kinds of motion in a conducting wire, both rectilineal and circular, and also the rotation of a wire helix, such as that described, now called an electro-dynamic cylinder, on account of some improvements in its construction (N. 219). And as the hypothesis of a force varying inversely as the squares of the distances accords perfectly with all the observed phenomena, these motions come under the same laws of dynamics and analysis as any other branch of physics.

Electro-dynamic cylinders act on each other precisely as if they were magnets during the time the electricity is flowing through them. All the experiments that can be performed with the cylinder might be accomplished with a magnet. That end of the cylinder in which the current of positive electricity is moving in a direction similar to the motion of the hands of a watch, acts as the south pole of a magnet, and the other end, in which the

current is flowing in a contrary direction, exhibits northern polarity.

The phenomena mark a very decided difference between the action of electricity in motion or at rest, that is, between Voltaic and common electricity; the laws they follow are in many respects of an entirely different nature, though the electricities themselves are identical. Since Voltaic electricity flows perpetually, it cannot be accumulated, and consequently has no tension, or tendency to escape from the wires which conduct it. Nor do these wires either attract or repel light bodies in their vicinity, whereas ordinary electricity can be accumulated in insulated bodies to a great degree, and in that state of rest the tendency to escape is proportional to the quantity accumulated and the resistance it meets with. In ordinary electricity, the law of action is that dissimilar electricities attract, and similar electricities repel one another. In Voltaic electricity, on the contrary, similar currents, or such as are moving in the same direction, attract one another, while a mutual repulsion is exerted between dissimilar currents, or such as flow in opposite directions. Common electricity escapes when the pressure of the atmosphere is removed, but the electro-dynamical effects are the same whether the conductors be in air or in vacuo.

The effects produced by a current of electricity depend upon the celerity of its motion through a conducting wire. Yet we are ignorant whether the motion be uniform or varied, but the method of transmission has a marked influence on the results; for when it flows without intermission, it occasions a deviation in the magnetic needle, but it has no effect whatever when its motion is discontinuous or interrupted, like the current produced by the common electrical machine when a communication is made between the positive and negative conductors.

M. Ampère has established a theory of electro-magnetism suggested by the analogy between electro-dynamic cylinders and magnets, founded upon the reciprocal attraction of electric currents, to which all the phenomena of magnetism and electro-magnetism may be reduced, by assuming that the magnetic properties

which bodies possess derive these properties from currents of electricity circulating about every part in one uniform direction. Although every particle of a magnet possesses like properties with the whole, yet the general effect is the same as if the magnetic properties were confined to the surface. Consequently the internal electro-currents must compensate one another, and therefore the magnetism of a body is supposed to arise from a superficial current of electricity constantly circulating in a direction perpendicular to the axes of the magnet; so that the reciprocal action of magnets, and all the phenomena of electro-magnetism, are reduced to the action and reaction of superficial currents of electricity acting at right angles to their direction. Notwithstanding the experiments made by M. Ampère to elucidate the subject, there is still an uncertainty in the theory of the induction of magnetism by an electric current in a body near it. It does not appear whether electric currents which did not previously exist are actually produced by induction, or if its effects be only to give one uniform direction to the infinite number of electric currents previously existing in the particles of the body, and thus rendering them capable of exhibiting magnetic phenomena, in the same manner as polarization reduces those undulations of light to one plane which had previously been performed in every plane. Possibly both may be combined in producing the effect; for the action of an electric current may not only give a common direction to those already existing, but may also increase their intensity. However that may be, by assuming that the attraction and repulsion of the elementary portions of electric currents vary inversely as the squares of the distances, the action being at right angles to the direction of the current, it is found that the attraction and repulsion of a current of indefinite length on the elementary portion of a parallel current at any distance from it, is in the simple ratio of the shortest distance between them. Consequently the reciprocal action of electric currents is reduced to the composition and resolution of forces, so that the phenomena of electro-magnetism are brought under the laws of dynamics by the theory of M. Ampère.

SECTION XXXIII.

Magneto-Electricity-Volta-Electric Induction-Magneto-Electric Induction-Identity in the Action of Electricity and Magnetism-Description of a Magneto-Electric Apparatus and its Effects-Identity of Magnetism and Electricity.

FROM the law of action and reaction being equal and contrary, it might be expected that, as electricity powerfully affects magnets, so, conversely, magnetism ought to produce electrical phenomena. By proving this very important fact from the following series of interesting and ingenious experiments, Dr. Faraday has added another branch to the science, which he has named magneto-electricity. A great quantity of copper wire was coiled in the form of a helix round one half of a ring of soft iron, and connected with a galvanic battery; while a similar helix connected with a galvanometer was wound round the other half of the ring, but not touching the first helix. As soon as contact was made with the battery, the needle of the galvanometer was deflected. But the action was transitory; for when the contact was continued, the needle returned to its usual position, and was not affected by the continual flow of the electricity through the wire connected with the battery. As soon however as the contact was broken, the needle of the galvanometer was again deflected, but in the contrary direction. Similar effects were produced by an apparatus consisting of two helices of copper wire coiled round a block of wood, instead of iron, from which Dr. Faraday infers that the electric current passing from the battery through one wire, induces a similar current through the other wire, but only at the instant of contact, and that a momentary current is induced in a contrary direction, when the passage of the electricity is suddenly interrupted. These brief currents or waves of electricity were found to be capable of magnetizing needles, of passing through a small extent of fluid, and when charcoal points were interposed in the current of the induced helix, a minute spark was perceived as often

as the contacts were made or broken, but neither chemical action nor any other electric effects were obtained. A deviation of the needle of the galvanometer took place when common magnets were employed instead of the Voltaic current; so that the magnetic and electric fluids are identical in their effects in this experiment. Again, when a helix formed of 220 feet of copper wire, into which a cylinder of soft iron was introduced, was placed between the north and south poles of two bar magnets, and connected with the galvanometer by means of wires from each extremity, as often as the magnets were brought into contact with the iron cylinder, it became magnetic by induction, and produced a deflection in the needle of the galvanometer. On continuing the contact, the needle resumed its natural position, and when the contact was broken, deflection took place in the opposite direction; when the magnetic contacts were reversed, the deflection was reversed also. With strong magnets, so powerful was the action, that the needle of the galvanometer whirled round several times successively; and similar effects were produced by the mere approximation or removal of the helix to the poles of the magnets. Thus it was proved that magnets produce the very same effects on the galvanometer that electricity does. Though at that time no chemical decomposition was effected by these momentary currents which emanate from the magnets, they agitated the limbs of a frog; and Dr. Faraday justly observes, that "an agent which is conducted along metallic wires in the manner described, which, while so passing, possesses the peculiar magnetic actions and force of a current of electricity, which can agitate and convulse the limbs of a frog, and which finally can produce a spark by its discharge through charcoal, can only be electricity." Hence it appears that electrical currents are evolved by magnets, which produce the same phenomena with the electrical currents from the Voltaic battery: they however differ materially in this respect—that time is required for the exercise of the magnetico-electric induction, whereas Volta-electric induction is instantaneous.

After Dr. Faraday had proved the identity of the