Page:A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism - Volume 1.djvu/464

422 of the resistance deduced from the current will give a greater value if a certain time is allowed to elapse than if taken immediately after applying the battery.

Thus, with Hooper's insulating material the apparent resistance at the end of ten minutes was four times, and at the end of nineteen hours twenty-three times that observed at the end of one minute. When the direction of the electromotive force is reversed, the resistance falls as low or lower than at first and then gradually rises.

These phenomena seem to be due to a condition of the gutta-percha, which, for want of a better name, we may call polarization, and which we may compare on the one hand with that of a series of Leyden jars charged by cascade, and, on the other, with Ritter's secondary pile, Art. 271.

If a number of Leyden jars of great capacity are connected in series by means of conductors of great resistance (such as wet cotton threads in the experiments of M. Gaugain), then an electromotive force acting on the series will produce a current, as indicated by a galvanometer, which will gradually diminish till the jars are fully charged.

The apparent resistance of such a series will increase, and if the dielectric of the jars is a perfect insulator it will increase without limit. If the electromotive force be removed and connexion made between the ends of the series, a reverse current will be observed, the total quantity of which, in the case of perfect insulation, will be the same as that of the direct current. Similar effects are observed in the case of the secondary pile, with the difference that the final insulation is not so good, and that the capacity per unit of surface is immensely greater.

In the case of the cable covered with gutta-percha, &c., it is found that after applying the battery for half an hour, and then connecting the wire with the external electrode, a reverse current takes place, which goes on for some time, and gradually reduces the system to its original state.

These phenomena are of the same kind with those indicated by the 'residual discharge' of the Leyden jar, except that the amount of the polarization is much greater in gutta-percha, &c. than in glass.

This state of polarization seems to be a directed property of the material, which requires for its production not only electromotive force, but the passage, by displacement or otherwise, of a