THE 

 LONDON, EDINBURGH, and DUBLIN 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



JOUPNAL OF SCIENCE. 



[FOURTH SERIES.] 



FEBRUARY 1865. 



XIV. An Account of some Electrical Experiments and Inductions. 

 By J. J. Waterston, Esq.* 



[With a Plate.] 



IN the various forms of electric discharge and their wondrous 

 diversity of phenomena, can we detect a dynamical condition 

 common to all — a single essential principle upon which the ces- 

 sation of the excitement depends ? Light is a common pheno- 

 menon attending discharge, having its origin therein; but 

 throughout nature generally light originates in molecules of 

 ordinary matter : a beginning of the phenomena of light is never 

 unassociated with the material element, unless electric discharge 

 be an exception: yet it may not be an exception,'since Fusinieri has 

 proved that metallic molecules are transportedfrom one conductor 

 to the other when an electric spark is made to pass between them. 

 This transport of molecules has always appeared to me to be a 

 phenomenon of the highest interest as respects the essential 

 nature of discharge ; and some years ago, while engaged experi- 

 menting, I endeavoured to find out if it existed in other forms of 

 discharge besides the spark. On looking over the notes of these 

 experiments lately, it has occurred to me that some of them may 

 perhaps interest cultivators of this branch of science. In the 

 following paper I submit these, along with others made more 

 recently, with the view of investigating certain phenomena of 

 induction on non-conducting matter ; also some deductions 

 from Harris's original researches of 1834 and 1839 with respect 

 to the integral of the electric force, and the laws of its distribu- 

 tion in space. The remarks relating to each experiment, ap- 

 pended to the paper, are kept separate in order that the facts 



* Communicated by the Author. 

 Phil. Mag. S. 4. Vol, 29. No. 194. Feb. 1865. G 



