88 M. E. Edlund on the Nature of Electricity. 



3. Electrodynamic phenomena. — The galvanic current consists, 

 in our opinion, in this : — that the electric aether moves from one 

 point to another in the circuit, the intensity of the current heing 

 determined by the product of the density of the sether in motion 

 and its velocity ; or, in other terms, it is proportional to the 

 quantity of sether which passes through the circuit in the unit of 

 time. The quantity of aether in the closed circuit is the same 

 when the current exists as when there is no current. The elec- 

 tromotive forces from which the current derives its origin cannot 

 create aether; their action is restricted to transforming into 

 translatory motion the oscillatory motion which already exists 

 under the form of heat. From this it follows that heat should 

 disappear at the point in the circuit where the electromotive 

 force is acting — which is proved, moreover, by Peltier's pheno- 

 mena. In this May the origin of the galvanic current becomes 

 singularly simple : the electromotive forces create nothing new ; 

 they merely, like ordinary machines, transform one sort of mo- 

 tion into another. 



The numerous experiments which have been made for the 

 purpose of ascertaining the velocity of electricity in wires have 

 not given concordant results ; the reasons for this are easily com- 

 prehended. Wheatstone and Faraday have shown the important 

 part played, in regard to this, by the conducting wire, in conse- 

 quence of which a subsequent point of the wire cannot, at the 

 commencement of the current, receive electricity until the pre- 

 ceding parts of the same wire have been saturated. The velo- 

 city of electricity in a conducting wire surrounded by an insula- 

 ting layer and deposited in the sea should therefore appear rela- 

 tively a minimum ; for the wire enclosed in the insulating layer 

 and the water circulating around it constitute the armatures of 

 a condensing apparatus capable of condensing a great quantity 

 of electricity. The power of condejisation of a wire insulated in 

 the air is inferior to that possessed by a marine cable ; but it 

 depends, in a great degree, on external circumstances, such as 

 the humidity of the air, the mode of suspension, &c. Experi- 

 ment also shows that submerged wires furnish the least amount 

 of velocity. It has consequently not been possible to give de- 

 terminate numbers for the absolute velocity of propagation of 

 electricity ; but all the experiments agree in this, that it is sin- 

 gularly great, and that it is independent of the intensity of the 

 current. Experiments with a single wire, and in identical cir- 

 cumstances, must give sure results. 



that certain experiments (Pogg. Ann. vol. cxxiv. p. 507) have shown the 

 same optical properties in electrified bodies as when they are in their neu- 

 tral condition, invalidates therefore not at all the proposition that electrical 

 phenomena are produced by the aether. 



