139 
which still occupies the belfry of Independence Hall. He reached 
London in 1831 and shortly afterwards became connected with the 
Adelaide Gallery of Practical Science, having charge of its exten- 
sive collection of philosophical apparatus. It was here that he met 
Telford, Brunel and other eminent English engineers. By them 
he was introduced to the meetings of the Royal Institution and was 
admitted into friendly relationship with its Fullerian professor of 
chemistry, Michael Faraday. ‘The primary facts of magneto-elec- 
tric and of dynamo-electric induction had already been discovered 
by Faraday in 1831. Saxton took a great interest in these discoy- 
eries and followed them up by constructing the first operative mag- 
neto-electric machine. In his appreciative biographical memoir of 
Mr. Saxton, Professor Henry thus speaks of his great scientific in- 
vention : 
“«Tt was a part of the general principle discovered by Mr. Far- 
aday that, if an insulated or coated wire were wound with many 
coils around a cylinder of soft iron, which is suddenly magnetized 
by touching its ends with a magnet, the same effect would be pro- 
duced as that described by thrusting in and drawing out a perma- 
nent magnet. A current in one direction would be excited in the 
coil when the core became magnetized, and a current would be 
produced in an opposite direction the moment the magnetism 
ceased. Mr. Saxton adopted for the inducing magnet to be em- 
ployed in his machine a compound one, consisting of a number of 
steel bars bent into the form of a horseshoe, magnetized separately, 
and then screwed together so as to form one powerful combination. 
For the inducing part of the apparatus he bent a cylindrical rod of 
iron of about three-fourths of an inch in diameter twice at right 
angles so as to produce the form of a U, the parallel legs of which 
were at the distance of that of the centres of the two poles of the 
permanent magnet. Around each of these legs he wound thirty or 
forty yards of insulated copper wire. Now it is evident from the 
principle before stated that when the two ends of the legs of this U 
of soft iron are brought in contact with the poles of the permanent 
magnet, an instantaneous current will be produced in the natural 
electricity of the wires, each in a direction opposite to the other. 
Again, when the soft iron U is drawn suddenly away from the 
poles of the permanent magnet, a reverse current will take place in 
each of the coils. But a more intense effect will be produced 
if the legs of the soft iron horseshoe or U be made to rotate before 
