Page:A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism - Volume 2.djvu/227

 CHAPTER VI. DYNAMICAL THEORY OF ELECTROMAGNETISM. 568.] have shewn, in Art. 552, that, when an electric current exists in a conducting circuit, it has a capacity for doing a certain amount of mechanical work, and this independently of any external electromotive force maintaining the current. Now capacity for performing work is nothing else than energy, in whatever way it arises, and all energy is the same in kind, however it may differ in form. The energy of an electric current is either of that form which consists in the actual motion of matter, or of that which consists in the capacity for being set in motion, arising from forces acting between bodies placed in certain positions relative to each other.

The first kind of energy, that of motion, is called Kinetic energy, and when once understood it appears so fundamental a fact of nature that we can hardly conceive the possibility of resolving it into anything else. The second kind of energy, that depending on position, is called Potential energy, and is due to the action of what we call forces, that is to say, tendencies towards change of relative position. With respect to these forces, though we may accept their existence as a demonstrated fact, yet we always feel that every explanation of the mechanism by which bodies are set in motion forms a real addition to our knowledge.

569.] The electric current cannot be conceived except as a kinetic phenomenon. Even Faraday, who constantly endeavoured to emancipate his mind from the influence of those suggestions which the words electric current and electric fluid are too apt to carry with them, speaks of the electric current as 'something progressive, and not a mere arrangement'.