Page:The Galvanic Circuit Investigated Mathematically.pdf/28

 21

approximates closely to equilibrium, and consists in this: that by the constant transmission of the electricity, a perceptible change in the electric condition of the parts of the conductor through which the current passes is nowhere produced.

The peculiarity of this state, which occurs also frequently in the transmission of light and heat, arises from the fact that each particle of the conducting medium situated in the circuit of action receives each moment just the same amount of the transmitted electricity from the one side. as it gives off to the other, and therefore constantly retains an unchanged quantity.

Now, since by reason of the first fundamental position the electrical transition only takes place directly from the one particle to the other, and is under otherwise similar circumstances, determined according to its energy by the electrical difference of the two particles, this state must evidently indicate itself on the ring uniformly excited in its entire thickness, and similarly constituted in all its parts, by a constant change in the electric con-