MICHAEL FARADAY 263 



friends attend his funeral, and his grave was to be of the 

 commonest description and in the most simple position, 

 which also was followed out. 



WILHELM WEBER 



i8o4-i8go 



Weber was the founder of the electrical system of measure- 

 ment generally used to-day, and he became so by being the first 

 to work out thoroughly and with the greatest possible re- 

 finement the newly discovered domain of knowledge opened 

 up from Oersted to Faraday, and otherwise linking up with 

 what Gauss had already done as regards magnetic quantities. 

 For this purpose he devised new and much improved ap- 

 pliances of different kinds, such as the electro-dynamometer 

 and the earth-inductor, and carried out with the greatest 

 energy measurements of an accuracy hitherto unobtained, 

 which measurements brought all the new discoveries into so 

 firm a connection with one another, that no gap remained. 

 The result was that a beginning could at once be made 

 to operate with quantities the conception of which had 

 only just been formulated, or at any rate made measurable, 

 such as electrical current strength, induced electro-motive 

 force and electrical capacity, just as had been possible 

 since Newton's time as regards forces, velocities and 

 masses. 



In the course of this work Weber himself also made a new 

 discovery, which could not fail to be the case with any 

 thorough and devoted investigator. He found, when he 

 brought into connection the two laws of Coulomb for the 

 electric and magnetic forces - which was possible by using 

 the connection discovered by Oersted - that in this con- 

 nection a velocity played a part, which he determined by 



