406 Dr. Faraday on the Physical Character of 



At present such results as we have cannot be accepted as in any 

 degree proving the point of time; though if that point were 

 proved, they would most probably come under it. It may be as 

 well to state, that in the case also of the moving wire or con- 

 ductor (125. 3076.), time is required*. There seems no hope 

 of touching the investigation by any method like those we are 

 able to apply to a ray of light, or to the current of the Leyden 

 discharge ; but the mere statement of the problem may help 

 towards its solution. 



3254;. If an action in curved lines or directions could be proved 

 to exist in the case of the lines of magnetic force, it would also 

 prove their physical existence external to the magnet on which 

 they might depend ; just as the same proof applies in the case 

 of static electric induction f- But the simple disposition of the 

 lines, as they are shown by iron particles, cannot as yet be 

 brought in proof of such a curvature, because they may be de- 

 pendent upon the presence of these pai"ticles and their mutual 

 action on each other and the magnets ; and it is possible that 

 attractions and repulsions in right lines might produce the same 

 arrangement. The results therefore obtained by the moving 

 wire (3076. 3176) J, are more likely to supply data fitted to elu- 

 cidate this point, when they are extended, and the true magnetic 

 relation of the moving wire to the space which it occupies is 

 fully ascertained. 



3255. The amount of the lines of magnetic force, or the force 

 which they represent, is clearly limited, and therefore quite un- 

 like the force of gravity in that respect (3245.) ; and this is true, 

 even though the force of a magnet in free space must be con- 

 ceived of as extending to incalculable distances. This limitation 

 in amount of force appears to be intimately dependent upon the 

 dual nature of the power, and is accompanied by a displacement 

 or removability of it from one object to another, utterly unlike 

 anything which occurs in gravitation. The lines of force abut- 

 ting on one end or pole of a magnet may be changed in their 

 direction almost at pleasure (3238.), though the original seats of 

 their further parts may otherwise remain the same. For, by 

 bringing fresh terminals of power into presence, a new dispo- 

 sition of the force upon them may be occasioned ; but though 

 these may be made, either in part or entirely, to receive the ex- 

 ternal power, and thus alter its direction, no change in the 

 amount of the force is thus produced. And this is the case in 

 strict experiments, whether the new bodies introduced are soft 

 iron or magnets (3218. 3223.) §. In this respect, therefore, the 



* Experimental Researches, 8vo edition, vol. ii. pp. 191, 195. 

 t Philosophical Transactions, 1838, p. 16. J Ibid. 1852. 



§ Ibid. 1852. 



