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Article XIII. 



The Galvanic Circuit investigated Mathematically. By 

 Dr. G. S. Ohm*. 



Preface. 



I HEREWITH present to the public a theory of galvanic elec- 

 tricitjj as a special part of electrical science in general, and shall 

 successively, as time, inclination, and means permit, arrange more 

 such portions together into a Avhole, if this first essay shall 

 in some degree repay the sacrifices it has cost me. The cir- 

 cumstances in which I have hitherto been placed, have not been 

 adapted either to encourage me in the pursuit of novelties, or 

 I to enable me to become acquainted with works relating to the 

 same department of literature throughout its whole extent. I 

 have therefore chosen for my first attempt a portion in which 

 I have the least to apprehend competition. May the well-dis- 

 posed reader receive the performance with the same love for the 



object as that with which it is sent forth. rn a 



'' iHE Author. 



Berlin, May 1st, 1827. 



Introduction. 



The design of this Memoir is to deduce strictly from a ievf 

 principles, obtained chiefly by experiment, the rationale of 

 those electrical phsenomena which are produced by the mutual 

 contact of two or more bodies, and which have been termed 

 Galvanic: — its aim is attained if by means of it the variety 

 of facts be presented as unity to the mind. To begin with 

 the most simple investigations, I have confined myself at the 

 outset to those cases where the excited electricity propagates 

 itself only in one dimension. They form, as it were, the scaflfold 

 to a greater structure, and contain precisely that portion, the more 

 accurate knowledge of which may be gained from the elements 

 of natural philosophy, and which, also, on account of its greater 

 accessibihty, may be given in a more strict form. To answer 



* " THe Galvanische Kette mathematisch hearheitet von Dr. G. S. Ohm : 

 Berlin, 1827." Translatrd from tlie German by Mr. Wiiliam i'laniris, Student 

 in Philosophy in the University of Berlin. 



