406 OHM ON THE GALVANIC CIRCUIT. 



electrical, state of the part. The line A B (Plate XXIV., fi». 1) '. 

 may accordingly reyjresent the ring extended in a straight line, , 

 and the lines AF and B G perpendicular to A B may indicate h 

 by their lengths the force of the positive electricities situated at a 

 the extremities A and B. If now the straight line F G be di'awn 

 from F to G, also F H parallel to A B, the position of F G will 

 give the mode of separation of the electricity, and the quantities 

 BG— AForGH the tension occurring at the extremities of 

 the ring ; and the force of the electricity at any other place C, 

 may easily be expressed by the length of C D drawn through C 

 perpendicularly to A B. But, from the nature of the galvanic 

 excitation, merely the quantity of the tension or the length of the 

 line G H, therefore the difference of the lines A F and B G, is 

 determined, but not at all the absolute magnitudes of the lines 

 A F and B G ; consequently the mode of separation inay be 

 represented quite as well by any other line parallel to the 

 former, e. g. by I K, for which the tension still constantly 

 retains the same value expressed by K N, because the ordi- 

 nates situated at present below A B assume a relation opposed 

 to their former one. Which of the infinitely numerous lines 

 parallel to F G would express the actual state of the ring can- 

 not be stated in general, but must in each case be separately 

 determined from the circumstances which occur. Moreover, it 

 is easilv conceived that, as the position of the line sought is 

 given, it would be completely determined for one single part of 

 the ring by the determination of any one of its points, or, in other 

 words, by the knowledge of the electric force. If, for instance, 

 the ring lost all its electricity by abduction at the place C, the 

 line L M di-awn through C parallel to F G would in this case 

 express with perfect certainty the electrical state of the ring. 

 This variability in the separation of the electricity is the source 

 of the changeableness of the pheenomenon peculiar to the galvanic 

 circuit. I may further add, that it is evidently quite indif- 

 ferent whether the position of the line F G with respect to that 

 of A B be fixed ; or whether the position of the line F G re- 

 main constantly the same, and the position of AB with respect 

 to it be altered. The latter course is by far the more simple^ 

 Avhere the separation of the electricity assumes a more complex^ 

 form. 



The conclusions just arrived at, which hold for a ring ho-, 

 mogeneous throughout its whole extent, may easily be ex-s 



