Miscellaneous Intelligence. 445 
mind. His contributions to science, the fruits of this preparation and of 
his subsequent investigations, were exceedingly numerous. The follow- 
ing letter from Mr. J. P. Joule of Manchester, briefly announces some 
of the prominent results, and with slight exceptions correctly so. 
“I have sifted Mr. Sturgeon’s claims to the utmost. I hav 
f rg 
with Prof. CErsted, the discovery of the electro-magnetic engine. Mr. 
Sturgeon’s claims with regard to the magneto-electrical machine ap- 
pears to me to be equally well established. |! 
vised and executed an apparatus for throwing the opposing currents 
into one direction, thus accomplishing for this 
Besides this, he is beyond 
going by the name of “commutator” on the continent, and ‘ unitrep 
in America; an apparatus now universally employed in every magne- 
to-electrical machine. Mr. Sturgeon was without doubt, the construc- 
tor of the first rotary electro-magnetic engine.* ; 
“The use of amalgamated zinc plates in the voltaic battery was or'g- 
inated by Mr. Sturgeon. It is an improvement of such value that it 
as been universally adopted ever since, although all other arrange- 
_ments of equal date have been superseded. ae 
- * Mr. Sturgeon’s discoveries in the thermo-electricity and magnetism 
of homogeneous bodies are very important, and have placed his name 
higher than that of any other philosopher who, after Seebeck, has 
cultivated thermo-electricity. 
ne; but 
electro- 
xam- 
