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XL. On the Relations of Magnetism and Static Electricity, By 

 Charles W.Vincent, Temporary Assistant Librarian, Royal 

 Institution*. 



FORCE, as we recognize it, is the conversion of power from 

 one of its phases or manifestations into another; and in 

 the act and at the time of this conversion the original force is 

 so far changed in direction, exhausted, and finally extinguished, 

 the sum of the new force or forces being the measure of the 

 quantity and intensity of the original force. A continued exer- 

 tion of the same force implies its renewal from some other source. 



That a magnet, in the continued exertion of its force without 

 apparent diminution (as, for instance, when suspended by its 

 keeper it maintains itself through time against gravity, without 

 such an apparent expenditure of power as would account for the 

 work done), nevertheless follows the same law is, I think, the ge- 

 nerally accepted view of physicists ; but the source whence it 

 obtains its renewal of expended power is as yet a matter for ex- 

 perimental investigation. 



To the writer's mind the modes of magnetization suggest, to 

 a certain extent, the direction in which such an investigation 

 might be profitably pursued. The voltaic current, magneto- 

 electric current, currents of static electricity, or simple vibration 

 of a magnetic in a diamagnetic medium in a magnetic field, 

 alike give rise to the magnetic force. 



Now in each of these cases magnetism is the resultant, not of 

 the force acting primarily, but of that which it evokes ; there is no 

 magnetism in the magnetic meridian, but diamagnetic polarity. 

 The static, magneto-electric, or voltaic currents do not transmit 

 any of the force by which they exist per se } but expend them- 

 selves in exciting a state of diamagnetic tension in the surround- 

 ing media, which in its turn creates the magnetic current, the 

 amount and intensity of which at the time must be the measure 

 of the forces which excited it. Each of the forces quoted, so far 

 as its active power is concerned, is finite and dependent on the 

 expenditure of some other force ; but if steel be made the reci- 

 pient of its inductive force, it is mechanically changed in its 

 structure (as Joule's experiment proves) by the manner in which 

 it makes its molecules take up and arrange themselves in the 

 peculiar mode of vibration, rotation, or both combined, which we 

 call magnetic; and this state of excitation is indefinite in its 

 continuance. This is stating the case generally as it appears to 

 the writer ; but if we particularize, the discrepancy will appear 

 the greater: viz., a piece of steel is passed over another which is 

 already in the magnetic state ; and if this is done inductively, 



* Communicated by the Author. 



