Royal Society. 6iJ 



March ^9. — A Report, drawn up by the Rev. William Whewell, 

 M.A. F.R.S., and John William Lubbcck, Esq. M.A. V.P. and 

 Treas. R.S., on Professor Airy's Paper, read before the Royal 

 Society on November 24, 1831, and entitled, " On an Inequality of 

 Long Period in the Motions of the Earth and Venus," was read. 



The conclusion of this Report is as follows : 



" We regard this paper as the first specific improvement in the 

 solar tables made by an Englishman since the time of Halley, as 

 valuable from the care which the author has employed in the nume- 

 rical calculations, as well as for the sagacity he has displayed in the 

 detection of an inequality so small, and of so large period ; and we 

 recommend its insertion in the Philosophical Transactions." 



A notice of Prof. Airy's Paper will be found in the Phil. Mag. 

 and Annals, vol. xi. p. 117. 



April 5. — The following Report, drawn up by Samuel Hunter 

 Christie, Esq., M.A. F.R.S., and John Bostock, M.D. V.P.R.S., 

 on Mr. Faraday's Paper, read before the Royal Society on December 

 15, 1831, and entitled "Experimental Researches in Electricity," 

 was read*. 



Report. ,,,( 



In the first section of this paper, the author considers the induc- 

 tion of electricity in motion. 



Shortly after the discovery by Oersted of the influence of elec- 

 tricity in motion on a magnetic needle, it was almost simultaneously 

 discovered by Arago, Davy, and Seebeck, that iron became magnetic 

 by induction from the connecting wire of a voltaic battery, or the 

 passage of an electric current ; but though the effects at first ob- 

 served were afterwards greatly increased by peculiar arrangements, 

 induction was in all cases restricted to iron. Arago's beautiful ex- 

 periments on magnetic needles vibrating within metallic rings, and 

 on the mutual action of all metals and magnets, when either is in 

 motion, are undoubtedly instances of a peculiar magnetic induction 

 in other metals than iron; but the very doubtful experiment of Am- 

 pere can scarcely be adduced as one. The singular results obtained 

 by MM. Marianini, De la Rive, and Von Beek, referred to by our 

 author, are probably due to electric induction. But none of these 

 can be considered as having originated the discoveries described in 

 the present paper, excepting so far as all new views originate in the 

 contemplation of results previously obtained. 



In this section of his paper the author shows that a peculiar state 

 is induced in a copper wire which is in the immediate neighbourhood 

 of another, through which an electric current passes, that is, which 

 forms the connecting wire in a voltaic circuit. This state of the 

 wire was manifested by its action on a magnetised needle, and by the 

 induction of magnetism in steel wire submitted to its action. 



Two copper wires, each more than 200 feet in length, were wound 

 m the same direction round a large block of wood, the coils of the 



• See Phil. Mag. and Annals, N.S. vol, xi. pp. :K)0, '101, 162, -Iti.'i ; and 

 the prcHcnt Number, pp. 15, 19, & 76. 



