532 Lecture on a new property of Magnetism, 



Taking down this apparatus, and giving you another form, there 

 comes out a very odd consequence, which in fact was the first conse- 

 quence we met with in this investigation, viz. z that bodies when 

 they are submitted to this kind of action take up a position very 

 unexpected, and utterly unlike anything that we looked for or 

 thought of, or hoped for, in magnetic action. You will easily see 

 that I have something like the other apparatus, a very weak suspen- 

 sion of the silk, with a hook below of copper wire, free from magnetic 

 action. I have stuck a piece of paper on the upper part to make the 

 motion sensible, which paper is fixed to the hook, and therefore will 

 move with it. On that hook I can suspend bodies, and submit them 

 to the action of the magnet. I hope by a little shading of these two 

 poles I shall shut out the air so as to give an idea of the influence of 

 the magnet when bodies are submitted to it in another form. You 

 have seen repulsion — here is another more beautiful form. Here is 

 a piece of bismuth, and I am about, by this silk thread, to suspend 

 it in this little cradle, and then bring it into what I have called the 

 magnetic field, into the place of action between the two poles. It is 

 indifferent so long as the arrangement is not magnetic, but the mo- 

 ment the two poles begin to act upon it, the bismuth will point, but 

 point in an odd position. By making and breaking contact, look 

 how it has swung round. By making contact it will not go round 

 this line, but will swing about that line, and in fact that is the line 

 which it will, at last, take up. Just as the piece of paper swings 

 about between the two poles, so this swings about a little across the 

 poles, or at right angles. When you think of the north and south 

 of the earth, and that this substance is subject to the earth's power, 

 it will point east and west instead of north and south, or across the 

 lines of magnetic force. I let it swing, but you see that the power of 

 torsion is such that it will go by ; but before it can pass the next 

 time, I will catch it by the magnet, and you will see it sent back. 

 Making contact, it is sent back by the magnetic force, and will 

 vibrate only across the line. 



I might show you many other cases of this description : phos- 

 phorous will do the same thing. Every body is repelled by one pole 

 or the other if put into a long form, even if composed of several 

 little bits put together. I may take grains of sand, put these into 



