Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 4.djvu/60

Rh of many dissimilar phænomena to one single comprehensive law. As the whole effect upon the electrolyte appeared to be an action of the particles when thrown into a peculiar polarized state, he was led to suspect that common induction itself is in all cases an action of contiguous particles, and that electrical action at a distance, which is what is meant by the term induction, never occurs except through the intermediate agency of intervening matter. He considered that a test of the correctness of his views might be obtained by tracing the course of inductive action; for if it were found to be exerted in curved lines it would naturally indicate the action of contiguous particles, and would scarcely be compatible with action at a distance. More over, if induction be an action of contiguous particles, and likewise the first step in electrolyzation, there seemed reason to expect some particular relation of this action to the different kinds of matter through which it is exerted; that is, something equivalent to a specific electric induction for different bodies; and the existence of such specific powers would be an irrefragable proof of the dependence of induction on the intervening particles. The failure of all attempts to produce an absolute charge of electricity of one species alone, in- dependent of the other, first suggested to the author the notion that induction is the result of actions among the individual and con- tiguous particles of matter, having both forces developed to an ex tent exactly equal in each particle.

The author describes various experiments, with the view of show- ing that no case ever occurs in which an absolute charge of one spe- cies of electricity can be given. His first experiments were conducted on a very large scale: an insulated cube, twelve feet in the side, consisting of a wooden frame, with wire net-work, every part of which was brought into good metallic contact by bands of tin foil, had a glass tube, containing a wire in connexion with a large elec- trical machine, passed through its side, so that about four feet of the tube entered within the cube and two feet remained without; but it was found impossible in any way to charge the air within this apра- ratus with the least portion of either electricity.

For investigating the question whether induction is an action of contiguous particles, the author employed, as an electrometer, the torsion balance of Coulomb with certain alterations and additions and for deciding that of specific inductive capacity, a new apparatus, constructed for that express purpose. This apparatus consisted of two hollow brass spheres, of very unequal diameters, the smaller placed within the larger, and concentric with it; the interval be- tween the two being the space through which the induction was to be effected. The apparatus had a tube in the lower part, furnished with a stop-cock, by means of which it might be connected with an air-pump or filled with any required gas. In place of the lower hemi- spherical shell of air, occupying the interval between the two spheres, any solid dielectric, of the same form, such as shell-lac, glass, or sulphur, might be substituted. Two of these instruments, precisely similar in every respect, were constructed, and the author ascertained that the inductive power was the same in both, by alter-