Page:Scientific Memoirs, Vol. 1 (1837).djvu/557

Rh 15. The spiral conductor produces, however, little or no increase of effect when introduced into a galvanic circuit of considerable intensity. Thus when the large spiral used in experiment seventh, eighth, &c. was made to connect the poles of two Cruikshank's troughs, each containing fifty-six four-inch plates, no greater effect was perceived than with a short thick wive: in both cases in making the contact a feeble spark was given, attended with a slight deflagration of the mercury. The batteries at the same time were in sufficiently intense action to give a disagreeable shock. It is probable, however, that if the length of the coil were increased in some proportion to the increase of intensity, an increased effect would still be produced.

In operating with the apparatus described in the last experiment, a phænomenon was observed in reference to the action of the battery itself, which I do not recollect to have seen mentioned, although it is intimately connected with the facts of magneto-electricity, as well as with the subject of these investigations, viz. When the body is made to form a part of a galvanic circuit composed of a number of elements, a shock is, of course, felt at the moment of completing the circuit. If the battery be not very large, little or no effect will be perceived during the uninterrupted circulation of the galvanic current; but if the circuit be interrupted by breaking the contact at any point, a shock will be felt at the moment, nearly as intense as that given when the contact was first formed. The secondary shock is rendered more evident, when the battery is in feeble action, by placing in the mouth the end of one of the wires connected with the poles; a shock and flash of light will be perceived when the circuit is completed, and also the same when the contact is broken at any point; but nothing of the kind will be perceived in the intermediate time, although the circuit may continue uninterrupted for some minutes. This I consider an important fact in reference to the action of the voltaic current.

The phænomena described in this paper appear to be intimately connected with those of magneto-electricity, and this opinion I advanced with the announcement of the first fact of these researches in the American Journal of Science. They may, I conceive, be all referred to that species of dynamical Induction discovered by Mr. Faraday, which produces the following phænomenon, namely: when two wires, A and B, are placed side by side, but not in contact, and a voltaic current is passed through A, there is a current produced in B, but in an opposite direction. The current in B exists only for an instant, although the current in A may be indefinitely continued; but if the current in A be stopped, there is produced in B a second current, in an opposite direction however to the first current.

The above fundamental fact in magneto-electricity appears to me to be a direct consequence of the statical principles of "Electrical Induction"