252 Electro-Magnetic Apparatus and Experiments. 



Art. Y. — Magneto-Electric and Electro- Magnetic Apparatus 

 and Experiments ; by Charles G, Page, M. D., Washington 

 City. 



From the splendor of the sparks, and the extreme intensity of 

 shocks obtained from magnetic electrical instruments where the 

 galvanic battery is used as a source of the magnetic power, the 

 hope has been entertained by many, that such instruments, would 

 prove valuable in a high degree as sources of electrolytic power. 

 The present infantile state of the science, shows clearly the fu- 

 tility of such a hope, and points directly to an arrangement which 

 will place in the hands of the operator an instrument surpassing 

 entirely the great galvanic battery in value and power. Such an 

 instrument is the magneto-electric machine. The instrument 

 described in the last April* number of this Journal demonstrates, 

 by careful experiment with Faraday's volta-electrometer, that 

 the electrolytic power of the current from the combined arma- 

 tures is just double that of one. The avenue, then, to an inde- 

 finite power, is too obvious to escape notice. Increase the num- 

 ber of pairs of magnets, extend the series of armatures upon ihe 

 same shaft, or in any way in which they may be brought to bear 

 on the same terminal pole, and I hazard nothing in the assertion, 

 that for the same prime cord, and contained in the same space, a 

 magneto-electric instrument can be made of equal power to a 

 galvanic battery of one thousand pairs of plates. It is evident, 

 that there will not be that rapid diminution with the extension 

 of the series which obtains in the galvanic arrangement, for in 

 the magneto-electric machine the whole route of the current is 

 through solid conductors, and in the galvanic battery, through a 

 great extent of liquid and numerous soldered and imperfect joints. 

 Nothing but the want of means has restrained me from erecting 

 a magneto-electric machine, which I feel confident would rival 

 the largest galvanic battery in existence. The arch of light 

 would be obtained by disposing one set of armatures at right 

 angles to the other, so that while one gave a diminishing cur- 

 rent, the other would afford a current increasing in the same 

 ratio ; while one set was in the neut?^al plane^ the other would 

 be at the point of strongest action. 



* Vol. XXXIV, p. 163. 



