18 EXPERIMENTS 1n MAGNETISM. 
Iron or foft fteel receives magnetifm more eafily than 
hardened fteel, but will not retain it; may not this be, be- 
caufe the magnetical particles are not fo clofely confined in 
foft as in hardened fteel, and on that account more cafily 
admit of arrangement or derangement. By making a 
piece of feel red hot, or by twifting it or beating it with 
a hammer, we may effectually deftroy its magnetifm. 
~ Now all thefe operations certainly derange the particles 
which compofe the bar. By rubbing one piece of fteel 
with another, magnetifm may be produced, and it is eafy 
to conceive how this operation, by the tremulous motion 
which it excites, may contribute to arrange the magneti- 
cal particles. 
We took a foft fteel ramrod, which did not difcover the 
leaft fign of magnetifm, and holding it in the dire€tion of 
the dipping needle, ftruck it feveral {mart blows with a 
hammer, on one end; then laying it on a watch chryftal it 
traverfed very well; that end which was held downwards, 
when ftruck, becoming a north pole, whether the ftroke 
was applied to the upper or the lower end. By turning 
the fouth end downwards and ftriking it afrefh, the mag- - 
netifm was deftroyed or reverfed, and it was curious to 
obierve how very nicely you muft adjuft the number and 
force of the ftrokes, precifely to deftroy the magnetifm be- 
fore communicated, without giving it anew, in a contrary 
dire€tion. When we held the ramrod directly acrofs the 
line of the dipping needle, whilft it was ftruck with a 
hammer, on many trials it did not difcover any figns of 
magnetifm. But when held in any other direCtion, that 
end which approached neareft to the point which the lower 
end of the dipping needle tends to, always became the 
north pole. From all this does it not feem very probable. 
that during the concuflion of the ftroke, and whilft the 
magnetical particles of the rod were moft difengaged from 
the furrounding matter, the active power abovementioned 
feized them and arranged them properly, where being 
confined, 
