INVENTIONS AND DISCOVK1UES. 199 



production of electric, or magnetic sparks, from the common magnet ; 

 and Perkins* new process for generating steam ; commencing with the 

 most attractive. 



" Palmam qui meruit ferat," has always been a favourite motto of 

 ours; and whilst we are ready to award the highest praise to Mr. 

 Faraday, for his assiduous, indefatigable, philosopher-like pursuit of the 

 subtle principle and peculiarity of electricity, and of his proofs of the 

 affinity (or identity?) between it and magnetism. And whilst we are 

 equally prompt to bestow our meed of approbation on Dr. Ritchie, for 

 his advancement of the same object, we must offer the palm of perfect 

 success to Mr. Saxton, an ingenious native of Philadelphia, now residing 

 in London, as the original demonstrator of the capability of eliciting a 

 spark from the common magnet. To do this, we must first refer to the 

 Minutes of the Royal Institution. 



On the llth of May, Dr. Ritchie, Professor of Natural Philosophy, 

 stated to the institution, that he had followed in the track of Mr. Fara- 

 day, in his late brilliant discoveries, and was happy to say that he had 

 uniformly arrived at the same conclusions. He had also succeeded in 

 making the spark, which had been obtained by Mr. Faraday in breaking 

 the magneto-electric circle, visible to a large assembly. This was done 

 by placing an explosive mixture of oxygen and hydrogen in the course 

 of the spark, which immediately produced a loud report and a flash of 

 light. He employed a horse-shoe magnet, between the ends of which 

 were placed a couple of tubes ; a wire was introduced into each, and 

 their connexion maintained by a conducting medium. The wires were 

 connected to the magnet by the folds of copper ribbon. The gas was 

 introduced by a bladder and stop-cock ; the contact suddenly broken ; 

 and the spark made evident by an explosion. Dr. Ritchie declared his 

 belief that no such spark could be elicited from any but a temporary 

 magnet. 



At this time Mr. Faraday came forward, and stated that he had 

 succeeded in obtaining a spark from a natural magnet. Mr. Faraday 

 had borrowed Brown's magnet from the Academy at Woolwich. A 

 small bar of iron, about six inches long, was used in contact with the 

 extremities of the magnet. Two connecting wires were raised from each 

 end of this small bar, and being bent at right angles, overlapped each 

 other. The undermost terminated in a disc, about the size of half-a- 

 crown. By a rapid percussion of the bar against the magnet, the disc 

 and wire broke, in contact by their electricity, and a beautiful blueish 

 spark was produced. 



Now, dates are very important to the identification of a discovery, 

 and it is upon these, and upon concurrent testimony, that we rely in 

 support of our conceding to Mr. Saxton the merit of the earliest demon- 

 stration of these interesting phenomena in England. It was on the 

 second day of May that Mr. Saxton first produced an electric (?) spark 

 from a common magnet, of very great power, which he was then con- 

 structing for exhibition, at the New Gallery, in Adelaide -street, Strand; 

 and on that, or the following day, the experiment was repeated in the 

 presence of Dr. Ritchie, who declared it to be the only one he had 

 witnessed. After some trifling improvements had been made by 

 Mr. Saxton, in the apparatus used for breaking the continuity of the 

 subtle fluid, he succeeded in causing the explosion of gunpowder, a 

 much less inflammable material than that used by Dr. Ritchie, from 



