Experimental Researches in Electricity Part 4

137. The latter experiment is a.n.a.logous to those made by Mr. Barlow with a rotating iron sh.e.l.l, subject to the influence of the earth[A]. The effects obtained by him have been referred by Messrs. Babbage and Herschel to the same cause as that considered as influential in Arago's experiment[B]; but it would be interesting to know how far the electric current which might be produced in the experiment would account for the deflexion of the needle.

The mere inversion of a copper wire six or seven times near the poles of the magnet, and isochronously with the vibrations of the galvanometer needle connected with it, was sufficient to make the needle vibrate through an arc of 60 or 70. The rotation of a copper sh.e.l.l would perhaps decide the point, and might even throw light upon the more permanent, though somewhat a.n.a.logous effects obtained by Mr. Christie.

[A] Philosophical Transactions, 1825. p. 317.

[B] Ibid. 1825. p. 485.

138. The remark which has already been made respecting iron (66.), and the independence of the ordinary magnetical phenomena of that substance and the phenomena now described of magneto-electric induction in that and other metals, was fully confirmed by many results of the kind detailed in this section. When an iron plate similar to the copper one formerly described (101.) was pa.s.sed between the magnetic poles, it gave a current of electricity like the copper plate, but decidedly of less power; and in the experiments upon the induction of electric currents (9.), no difference in the kind of action between iron and other metals could be perceived. The power therefore of an iron plate to drag a magnet after it, or to intercept magnetic action, should be carefully distinguished from the similar power of such metals as silver, copper, &c. &c., inasmuch as in the iron by far the greater part of the effect is due to what may be called ordinary magnetic action. There can be no doubt that the cause a.s.signed by Messrs.

Babbage and Herschel in explication of Arago's phenomena is the true one, when iron is the metal used.

139. The very feeble powers which were found by those philosophers to belong to bis.m.u.th and antimony, when moving, of affecting the suspended magnet, and which has been confirmed by Mr. Harris, seem at first disproportionate to their conducting powers; whether it be so or not must be decided by future experiment (73.)[A]. These metals are highly crystalline, and probably conduct electricity with different degrees of facility in different directions; and it is not unlikely that where a ma.s.s is made up of a number of crystals heterogeneously a.s.sociated, an effect approaching to that of actual division may occur (127.); or the currents of electricity may become more suddenly deflected at the confines of similar crystalline arrangements, and so be more readily and completely discharged within the ma.s.s.

[A] I have since been able to explain these differences, and prove, with several metals, that the effect is in the order of the conducting power; for I have been able to obtain, by magneto-electric induction, currents of electricity which are proportionate in strength to the conducting power of the bodies experimented with (211.).

--. _Royal Inst.i.tution, November 1831._

_Note._--In consequence of the long period which has intervened between the reading and printing of the foregoing paper, accounts of the experiments have been dispersed, and, through a letter of my own to M. Hachette, have reached France and Italy. That letter was translated (with some errors), and read to the Academy of Sciences at Paris, 26th December, 1831. A copy of it in _Le Temps_ of the 28th December quickly reached Signor n.o.bili, who, with Signor Antinori, immediately experimented upon the subject, and obtained many of the results mentioned in my letter; others they could not obtain or understand, because of the brevity of my account. These results by Signori n.o.bili and Antinori have been embodied in a paper dated 31st January 1832, and printed and published in the number of the _Antologia_ dated November 1831 (according at least to the copy of the paper kindly sent me by Signor n.o.bili). It is evident the work could not have been then printed; and though Signor n.o.bili, in his paper, has inserted my letter as the text of his experiments, yet the circ.u.mstance of back date has caused many here, who have heard of n.o.bili's experiments by report only, to imagine his results were anterior to, instead of being dependent upon, mine.

I may be allowed under these circ.u.mstances to remark, that I experimented on this subject several years ago, and have published results. (See Quarterly Journal of Science for July 1825, p. 338.) The following also is an extract from my note-book, dated November 28, 1825: "Experiments on induction by connecting wire of voltaic battery:--a battery of four troughs, ten pairs of plates, each arranged side by side--the poles connected by a wire about four feet long, parallel to which was another similar wire separated from it only by two thicknesses of paper, the ends of the latter were attached to a galvanometer:--exhibited no action, &c.

&c. &c.--Could not in any way render any induction evident from the connecting wire." The cause of failure at that time is now evident (79.).--M.F. April, 1832.

SECOND SERIES.

THE BAKERIAN LECTURE.

-- 5. _Terrestrial Magneto-electric Induction._ -- 6. _Force and Direction of Magneto-electric Induction generally._

Read January 12, 1832.

-- 5. _Terrestrial Magneto-electric Induction._

140. When the general facts described in the former paper were discovered, and the _law_ of magneto-electric induction relative to direction was ascertained (114.), it was not difficult to perceive that the earth would produce the same effect as a magnet, and to an extent that would, perhaps, render it available in the construction of new electrical machines. The following are some of the results obtained in pursuance of this view.

141. The hollow helix already described (6.) was connected with a galvanometer by wires eight feet long; and the soft iron cylinder (34.) after being heated red-hot and slowly cooled, to remove all traces of magnetism, was put into the helix so as to project equally at both ends, and fixed there. The combined helix and bar were held in the magnetic direction or line of dip, and (the galvanometer needle being motionless) were then inverted, so that the lower end should become the upper, but the whole still correspond to the magnetic direction; the needle was immediately deflected. As the latter returned to its first position, the helix and bar were again inverted; and by doing this two or three times, making the inversions and vibrations to coincide, the needle swung through an arc of 150 or 160.

142. When one end of the helix, which may be called A, was uppermost at first (B end consequently being below), then it mattered not in which direction it proceeded during the inversion, whether to the right hand or left hand, or through any other course; still the galvanometer needle pa.s.sed in the same direction. Again, when B end was uppermost, the inversion of the helix and bar in any direction always caused the needle to be deflected one way; that way being the opposite to the course of the deflection in the former case.

143. When the helix with its iron core in any given position was inverted, the effect was as if a magnet with its marked pole downwards had been introduced from above into the inverted helix. Thus, if the end B were upwards, such a magnet introduced from above would make the marked end of the galvanometer needle pa.s.s west. Or the end B being downwards, and the soft iron in its place, inversion of the whole produced the same effect.

144. When the soft iron bar was taken out of the helix and inverted in various directions within four feet of the galvanometer, not the slightest effect upon it was produced.

145. These phenomena are the necessary consequence of the inductive magnetic power of the earth, rendering the soft iron cylinder a magnet with its marked pole downwards. The experiment is a.n.a.logous to that in which two bar magnets were used to magnetize the same cylinder in the same helix (36.), and the inversion of position in the present experiment is equivalent to a change of the poles in that arrangement. But the result is not less an instance of the evolution of electricity by means of the magnetism of the globe.

146. The helix alone was then held permanently in the magnetic direction, and the soft iron cylinder afterwards introduced; the galvanometer needle was instantly deflected; by withdrawing the cylinder as the needle returned, and continuing the two actions simultaneously, the vibrations soon extended through an arc of 180. The effect was precisely the same as that obtained by using a cylinder magnet with its marked pole downwards; and the direction of motion, &c. was perfectly in accordance with the results of former experiments obtained with such a magnet (39.). A magnet in that position being used, gave the same deflections, but stronger. When the helix was put at right angles to the magnetic direction or dip, then the introduction or removal of the soft iron cylinder produced no effect at the needle. Any inclination to the dip gave results of the same kind as those already described, but increasing in strength as the helix approximated to the direction of the dip.

147. A cylinder magnet, although it has great power of affecting the galvanometer when moving into or out of the helix, has no power of continuing the deflection (39.); and therefore, though left in, still the magnetic needle comes to its usual place of rest. But upon repeating (with the magnet) the experiment of inversion in the direction of the dip (141), the needle was affected as powerfully as before; the disturbance of the magnetism in the steel magnet, by the earth's inductive force upon it, being thus shown to be nearly, if not quite, equal in amount and rapidity to that occurring in soft iron. It is probable that in this way magneto-electrical arrangements may become very useful in indicating the disturbance of magnetic forces, where other means will not apply; for it is not the whole magnetic power which produces the visible effect, but only the difference due to the disturbing causes.

148. These favourable results led me to hope that the direct magneto-electric induction of the earth might be rendered sensible; and I ultimately succeeded in obtaining the effect in several ways. When the helix just referred to (141. 6.) was placed in the magnetic dip, but without any cylinder of iron or steel, and was then inverted, a feeble action at the needle was observed. Inverting the helix ten or twelve times, and at such periods that the deflecting forces exerted by the currents of electricity produced in it should be added to the momentum of the needle (39.), the latter was soon made to vibrate through an arc of 80 or 90.

Here, therefore, currents of electricity were produced by the direct inductive power of the earth's magnetism, without the use of any ferruginous matter, and upon a metal not capable of exhibiting any of the ordinary magnetic phenomena. The experiment in everything represents the effects produced by bringing the same helix to one or both poles of any powerful magnet (50.).

149. Guided by the law already expressed (114.), I expected that all the electric phenomena of the revolving metal plate could now be produced without any other magnet than the earth. The plate so often referred to (85.) was therefore fixed so as to rotate in a horizontal plane. The magnetic curves of the earth (114. _note_), i.e. the dip, pa.s.ses through this plane at angles of about 70, which it was expected would be an approximation to perpendicularity, quite enough to allow of magneto-electric induction sufficiently powerful to produce a current of electricity.

150. Upon rotation of the plate, the currents ought, according to the law (114. 121.), to tend to pa.s.s in the direction of the radii, through _all_ parts of the plate, either from the centre to the circ.u.mference, or from the circ.u.mference to the centre, as the direction of the rotation of the plate was one way or the other. One of the wires of the galvanometer was therefore brought in contact with the axis of the plate, and the other attached to a leaden collector or conductor (86.), which itself was placed against the amalgamated edge of the disc. On rotating the plate there was a distinct effect at the galvanometer needle; on reversing the rotation, the needle went in the opposite direction; and by making the action of the plate coincide with the vibrations of the needle, the arc through which the latter pa.s.sed soon extended to half a circle.

151. Whatever part of the edge of the plate was touched by the conductor, the electricity was the same, provided the direction of rotation continued unaltered.

152. When the plate revolved _screw-fas.h.i.+on_, or as the hands of a watch, the current of electricity (150.) was from the centre to the circ.u.mference; when the direction of rotation was _unscrew_, the current was from the circ.u.mference to the centre. These directions are the same with those obtained when the unmarked pole of a magnet was placed beneath the revolving plate (99.).

153. When the plate was in the magnetic meridian, or in any other plane _coinciding_ with the magnetic dip, then its rotation produced no effect upon the galvanometer. When inclined to the dip but a few degrees, electricity began to appear upon rotation. Thus when standing upright in a plane perpendicular to the magnetic meridian, and when consequently its own plane was inclined only about 20 to the dip, revolution of the plate evolved electricity. As the inclination was increased, the electricity became more powerful until the angle formed by the plane of the plate with the dip was 90, when the electricity for a given velocity of the plate was a maximum.

154. It is a striking thing to observe the revolving copper plate become thus a _new electrical machine_; and curious results arise on comparing it with the common machine. In the one, the plate is of the best non-conducting substance that can be applied; in the other, it is the most perfect conductor: in the one, insulation is essential; in the other, it is fatal. In comparison of the quant.i.ties of electricity produced, the metal machine does not at all fall below the gla.s.s one; for it can produce a constant current capable of deflecting the galvanometer needle, whereas the latter cannot. It is quite true that the force of the current thus evolved has not as yet been increased so as to render it available in any of our ordinary applications of this power; but there appears every reasonable expectation that this may hereafter be effected; and probably by several arrangements. Weak as the current may seem to be, it is as strong as, if not stronger than, any thermo-electric current; for it can pa.s.s fluids (23.), agitate the animal system, and in the case of an electro-magnet has produced sparks (32.).

155. A disc of copper, one fifth of an inch thick and only one inch and a half in diameter, was amalgamated at the edge; a square piece of sheet lead (copper would have been better) of equal thickness had a circular hole cut in it, into which the disc loosely fitted; a little mercury completed the metallic communication of the disc and its surrounding ring; the latter was attached to one of the galvanometer wires, and the other wire dipped into a little metallic cup containing mercury, fixed upon the top of the copper axis of the small disc. Upon rotating the disc in a horizontal plane, the galvanometer needle could be affected, although the earth was the only magnet employed, and the radius of the disc but three quarters of an inch; in which s.p.a.ce only the current was excited.

156. On putting the pole of a magnet under the revolving disc, the galvanometer needle could be permanently deflected.

157. On using copper wires one sixth of an inch in thickness instead of the smaller wires (86.) hitherto constantly employed, far more powerful effects were obtained. Perhaps if the galvanometer had consisted of fewer turns of thick wire instead of many convolutions of thinner, more striking effects would have been produced.

158. One form of apparatus which I purpose having arranged, is to have several discs superposed; the discs are to be metallically connected, alternately at the edges and at the centres, by means of mercury; and are then to be revolved alternately in opposite directions, i.e. the first, third, fifth, &c. to the right hand, and the second, fourth, sixth, &c. to the left hand; the whole being placed so that the discs are perpendicular to the dip, or intersect most directly the magnetic curves of powerful magnets. The electricity will be from the centre to the circ.u.mference in one set of discs, and from the circ.u.mference to the centre in those on each side of them; thus the action of the whole will conjoin to produce one combined and more powerful current.

159. I have rather, however, been desirous of discovering new facts and new relations dependent on magneto-electric induction, than of exalting the force of those already obtained; being a.s.sured that the latter would find their full development hereafter.

160. I referred in my former paper to the probable influence of terrestrial magneto-electric induction (137.) in producing, either altogether or in part, the phenomena observed by Messrs. Christie and Barlow[A], whilst revolving ferruginous bodies; and especially those observed by the latter when rapidly rotating an iron sh.e.l.l, which were by that philosopher referred to a change in the ordinary disposition of the magnetism of the ball. I suggested also that the rotation of a copper globe would probably insulate the effects due to electric currents from those due to mere derangement of magnetism, and throw light upon the true nature of the phenomena.

[A] Christie, Phil. Trans. 1825, pp. 58, 347, &c. Barlow, Phil. Trans.

1825, p. 317.

161. Upon considering the law already referred to (114.), it appeared impossible that a metallic globe could revolve under natural circ.u.mstances, without having electric currents produced within it, circulating round the revolving globe in a plane at right angles to the plane of revolution, provided its axis of rotation did not coincide with the dip; and it appeared that the current would be most powerful when the axis of revolution was perpendicular to the dip of the needle: for then all those parts of the ball below a plane pa.s.sing through its centre and perpendicular to the dip, would in moving cut the magnetic curves in one direction, whilst all those parts above that plane would intersect them in the other direction: currents therefore would exist in these moving parts, proceeding from one pole of rotation to the other; but the currents above would be in the reverse direction to those below, and in conjunction with them would produce a continued circulation of electricity.

162. As the electric currents are nowhere interrupted in the ball, powerful effects were expected, and I endeavoured to obtain them with simple apparatus. The ball I used was of bra.s.s; it had belonged to an old electrical machine, was hollow, thin (too thin), and four inches in diameter; a bra.s.s wire was screwed into it, and the ball either turned in the hand by the wire, or sometimes, to render it more steady, supported by its wire in a notched piece of wood, and motion again given by the hand.

The ball gave no signs of magnetism when at rest.

163. A compound magnetic needle was used to detect the currents. It was arranged thus: a sewing-needle had the head and point broken off, and was then magnetised; being broken in halves, the two magnets thus produced were fixed on a stem of dried gra.s.s, so as to be perpendicular to it, and about four inches asunder; they were both in one plane, but their similar poles in contrary directions. The gra.s.s was attached to a piece of unspun silk about six inches long, the latter to a stick pa.s.sing through a cork in the mouth of a cylindrical jar; and thus a compound arrangement was obtained, perfectly sheltered from the motion of the air, but little influenced by the magnetism of the earth, and yet highly sensible to magnetic and electric forces, when the latter were brought into the vicinity of the one or the other needle.

164. Upon adjusting the needles to the plane of the magnetic meridian; arranging the ball on the outside of the gla.s.s jar to the west of the needles, and at such a height that its centre should correspond horizontally with the upper needle, whilst its axis was in the plane of the magnetic meridian, but perpendicular to the dip; and then rotating the ball, the needle was immediately affected. Upon inverting the direction of rotation, the needle was again affected, but in the opposite direction.

When the ball revolved from east over to west, the marked pole went eastward; when the ball revolved in the opposite direction, the marked pole went westward or towards the ball. Upon placing the ball to the east of the needles, still the needle was deflected in the same way; i.e. when the ball revolved from east over to west, the marked pole wont eastward (or towards the ball); when the rotation was in the opposite direction, the marked pole went westward.

165. By twisting the silk of the needles, the latter were brought into a position perpendicular to the plane of the magnetic meridian; the ball was again revolved, with its axis parallel to the needles; the upper was affected as before, and the deflection was such as to show that both here and in the former case the needle was influenced solely by currents of electricity existing in the bra.s.s globe.

166. If the upper part of the revolving ball be considered as a wire moving from east to west, over the unmarked pole of the earth, the current of electricity in it should be from north to south (99. 114. 150.); if the under part be considered as a similar wire, moving from west to east over the same pole, the electric current should be from south to north; and the circulation of electricity should therefore be from north above to south, and below back to north, in a metal ball revolving from east above to west in these lat.i.tudes. Now these currents are exactly those required to give the directions of the needle in the experiments just described; so that the coincidence of the theory from which the experiments were deduced with the experiments themselves, is perfect.

167. Upon inclining the axis of rotation considerably, the revolving ball was still found to affect the magnetic needle; and it was not until the angle which it formed with the magnetic dip was rendered small, that its effects, even upon this apparatus, were lost (153.). When revolving with its axis parallel to the dip, it is evident that the globe becomes a.n.a.logous to the copper plate; electricity of one kind might be collected at its equator, and of the other kind at its poles.