Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 10.djvu/356

836 as possible, and to allow it to be clearly seen from any external position with as little embarrassment as possible, a cage made like a bird's cage, with an extremely fine wire on a metal frame, inside the glass shade used to protect the instrument from currents of air, &c., may be substituted with advantage for the tinfoil network lining of the glass. It appears therefore that a properly constructed electrometer is an instrument for measuring, by means of the motions of a moveable conductor, the difference of potentials of two systems insulated from one another, of one of which the case or cage of the apparatus forms part. It may be remarked in passing, that it is sometimes convenient in special researches to insulate the case or cage of the apparatus, and allow it to acquire a potential differing from that of the earth, and that then, as always, the subject of measurement is the difference of potentials between the principal electrode and the case or cage, while in the ordinary use of the instrument the potential of the latter is the same as that of the earth. Hence we may regard the electrometer merely as an instrument for measuring differences of potential between two conducting systems mutually insulated ; and the object to he aimed at in perfecting any kind of electrometer (more or less sensitive as it may be, according to the subjects of investigation for which it is to be used), is, that accurate evaluations in absolute measure, of differences of potential, may be immediately derivable from its indications.

9. Relation between electrostatic force and variation of electric potential.—§ 7, otherwise stated, is equivalent to this: The average component electrostatic force in the straight line of air between two points in the neighbourhood of an electrified body is equal to their difference of potentials divided by their distance. In other words, the rate of variation of electric potential per unit of length in any direction, is equal to the component of the electrostatic force in that direction. Since the average electrostatic force in the line joining two points at which the values of the potential are equal, is nothing, the direction of the resultant electrostatic force at any point must be perpendicular to the equipotential surface passing through that point; or the lines of force (which are generally curves) cut the series of equipotential surfaces at right angles. The rate of variation of potential per unit of length along a line of force is therefore equal to the electrostatic force at any point.