Page:A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism - Volume 1.djvu/14

viii results of magnetic research on navigation, and the importance of a knowledge of the true direction of the compass, and of the effect of the iron in a ship. But the labours of those who have endeavoured to render navigation more secure by means of magnetic observations have at the same time greatly advanced the progress of pure science.

Gauss, as a member of the German Magnetic Union, brought his powerful intellect to bear on the theory of magnetism, and on the methods of observing it, and he not only added greatly to our knowledge of the theory of attractions, but reconstructed the whole of magnetic science as regards the instruments used, the methods of observation, and the calculation of the results, so that his memoirs on Terrestrial Magnetism may be taken as models of physical research by all those who are engaged in the measurement of any of the forces in nature.

The important applications of electromagnetism to telegraphy have also reacted on pure science by giving a commercial value to accurate electrical measurements, and by affording to electricians the use of apparatus on a scale which greatly transcends that of any ordinary laboratory. The consequences of this demand for electrical knowledge, and of these experimental opportunities for acquiring it, have been already very great, both in stimulating the energies of advanced electricians, and in diffusing among practical men a degree of accurate knowledge which is likely to conduce to the general scientific progress of the whole engineering profession.