214 GREAT MEN OF SCIENCE 



of this kind show that attention was paid not so much to the 

 new possibiHty of obtaining a plentiful flow of electricity by 

 Volta's invention, but rather in a confused sort of way, to the 

 new manner of producing static electrification. 



Oersted was obviously the first to investigate seriously the 

 pile with the current flowing. The discovery was then easily 

 made; he saw that the magnetic needle moved when brought 

 close to a conductor carrying a current. It is quite incorrect 

 to describe this as a chance discovery, for the search for a 

 connection was being made, and not even by Oersted alone; 

 hence the simultaneous presence of the pile and the mag- 

 netic needle on Oersted's laboratory table, and the observa- 

 tion of their effect upon one another was anything but 

 chance. The fact that the discovery took place during a 

 lecture is, assuming it to be so,^ not remarkable, when we 

 remember that Oersted delighted to hold a great many lec- 

 tures, even as many as four in one day. 



We may also remark here quite generally, that it is a sign 

 of widespread ignorance of the matter, when the credit due to 

 a discoverer is regarded as diminished by his not having 

 really known beforehand what was to be found. On the 

 contrary, a discovery is always the more remarkable, the 

 further it reaches out into the completely unknown, the less 

 therefore it is possible to see further ahead than that some- 

 thing was to be sought in a certain direction. He who does 

 not know how to judge discoveries in this light, regards 

 Mother Nature as being as poorly endowed as our own 

 human mind. Every great discoverer has been surprised 



^ It is difficult to be clear from Oersted's short Latin publication (for 

 neither Oersted nor ourselves were born to speak Latin) whether he 

 wished to state that the discovery took place during a lecture in the 

 winter of 1819 to 1820, or rather that the first experiment could already 

 be seen at this time at one of his lectures, that is to say by a number of 

 people. The latter is more probable, when we consider the over- 

 whelming novelty of the positive result, and the ease with which it was 

 obtained, once one knows how, together with the widespread search 

 going on at that time, and the delay which was inevitable before printed 

 publication of the detailed in\ estigation could take place. 



