106 HISTORY OF GALVANISM. 



bourhood of a magnet, gave rise to a force acting 

 on the magnet. In England, Messrs. Barlow and 

 Christie, Herschel and Babbage, repeated, and tried 

 to analyze this experiment ; but referring the forces 

 only to conditions of space and time, and overlook- 

 ing the real cause, the electrical currents produced 

 by the motion, these philosophers were altogether 

 unsuccessful in their labours. In 1831, Faraday 

 again sought for electro-dynamical induction, and 

 after some futile trials, at last found it in a form 

 different from that in which he had looked for it. 

 It was then seen, that at the precise time of making 

 or breaking the contact which closed the galvanic 

 circuit, a momentary effect was induced in a neigh- 

 bouring wire, but disappeared instantly 1 . Once in 

 possession of this fact, Mr. Faraday ran rapidly up 

 the ladder of discovery, to the general point of 

 view. Instead of suddenly making or breaking the 

 contact of the inducing circuit, a similar effect was 

 produced by removing the inducible wire nearer to 

 or further from the circuit 2 ; the effects were in- 

 creased by the proximity of soft iron 3 ; when the 

 soft iron was affected by an ordinary magnet instead 

 of the voltaic wire, the same effect still recurred 4 ; 

 and thus it appeared, that by making and breaking 

 magnetic contact, a momentary electric current was 

 produced. It was produced also by moving the 

 magnet 5 ; or by moving the wire with reference to 



1 Phil. Trans. 1832, p. 127, First Series, Art. 10. 



2 Art. 18. 3 Art. 28. 4 Art. .17. 5 Art. 30. 



