80 Faraday on neiv Elect ro-Magnetical Motions, 



of wire to make a pole pass one way round it, all tends to carry 

 that pole to a particular spot, whilst the opposite power is dif- 

 fused and rauch weakened in its action on any one pole. Hence 

 the power on one side of the wire is very much concentrated, and 

 its particular effects brought out strongly, whilst that on the other 

 is rendered insensible, A means is thus obtained of separating, 

 as it were, the one power from the other : but when this is done, 

 and we examine the end of the helix, it is found very much to re- 

 semble a magnetic pole ; the power is concentrated at the extre- 

 mity of the helix ; it attracts or repels one pole in all directions ; 

 and I find that it causes the revolution of the connecting wire 

 round it, just as a magnetic pole does. Hence it may, for the 

 present, be considered identical with a magnetic pole ; and I 

 think that the experimental evidence of the ensuing pages 

 will much strengthen that opinion. 



Assuming, then, that the pole of a magnetic needle presents 

 us with the properties of one side of the wire, the phenomena it 

 presents with the wire itself, offers us a means of analysis which, 

 probably, if well pursued, will give us a much more intimate 

 knowledge of the state of the powers active in magnets. When 

 it is placed near the wire, always assuming the latter to be con- 

 nected with the battery, it is made to revolve round it, passing 

 towards that side by which it is attracted,. and from that side by 

 which it is repelled, i. e., the pole is at once attracted and re- 

 pelled by equal powers, and therefore neither recedes or ap- 

 proaches ; but the powers being from opposite sides of the 

 wire, the pole in its double effort to recede from one side and 

 approach the other revolves in the circle, that circle being evi- 

 dently decided by the particular pole and state of the wire, and 

 deducible from the law before mentioned. 



The phenomena presented by the approximation of one pole 

 to two or more wires, or two poles to one or more wires, offer 

 many illustrations of this double action, and will lead to more 

 correct views of the magnet. These experiments are easily 

 made by loading a needle with platinum at one pole, that the 

 other may float above mercury, or by almost floating a small 

 magnetic needle by cork in a basin of water, at the bottom of 



