A letter to Prof. Faraday. 1 1 



By progressive polarization in a wire, may not stationary polar- 

 ization, or magnetism be created ; and reciprocally by magnetic 

 polarity may not progressive polarization be excited ? 



Might not the difficulty, abov,e suggested, of the incompetency 

 of any imaginable polarization to produce all the varieties of elec- 

 trical excitement which facts require for explanation, be sur- 

 mounted by supposing intensity to result from an accumulation 

 of free electric polarized particles, and quantity from a still greater 

 accumulation of such particles, polarized in a latent state or in 

 chemical combination ? 



There are it would seem many indications in favor of the idea 

 that electric excitement may be due to a forced polarity, but in 

 endeavoring to define the state thus designated, or to explain by 

 means of it the diversities of electrical charges, currents and ef- 

 fects, I have always felt the incompetency of any hypothesis 

 which I could imagine. How are we to explain the insensibility 

 of a gold leaf electroscope, to a galvanized wire, or the indiffer- 

 ence of a magnetic needle to the most intensely electrified sur- 

 faces ? 



Possibly the Franklinian hypothesis may be combined with that 

 above suggested, so that an electrical current may be constituted 

 of an imponderable fluid in a state of polarization, the two elec- 

 tricities being the consequence of the position of the poles, or 

 their presentation. Positive electricity may be the result of an 

 accumulation of electric particles, presenting poles of one kind ; 

 negative, from a like accumulation of the same matter with a 

 presentation of the opposite poles, inducing of course an oppo- 

 site polarity. The condensation of the electric matter, within 

 ponderable matter, may vary in obedience to a property analogous 

 to that which determines the capacity for heat, and the differ- 

 ent influence of dialectrics upon the process of electrical induc- 

 tion may arise from this source of variation. 



With the highest esteem, I am yours truly, 



Robert Hare. 



