Experimental Researches in Electricity. 0 



netic contact, the needle was deflected ; continuing the con- 

 tact it became indifferent ; on breaking the contact it was 

 again deflected, but in the opposite direction to the first 

 effect ; and then it again became indifferent." By other 

 experiments it was proved that the electrical currents induced 

 in the copper helices were due solely to the mere approxi- 

 mation of the inducing magnet, and by employing a very 

 powerful compound magnet, it appeared that the mere motion 

 of a single copper wire in front of, but without making contact 

 with, the magnet, was sufficient to induce in it currents of 

 electricity. At first no chemical, calorific, nor physiological 

 effects could be produced by the induced electrical current, 

 but on repeating his experiments more at leisure,with a natural 

 magnet or loadstone, capable of lifting thirty pounds, Faraday 

 found that a frog was powerfully convulsed, and he thought 

 at the same time he could perceive the sensation upon the 

 tongue, and the flash before the eyes, although he still failed 

 in producing chemical decomposition. The various ex- 

 periments however which he made, appears to furnish the 

 fullest warrant for the conclusion that electricity may be 

 produced from common magnetism. " That its intensity, " he 

 remarks, te should be very feeble, and its quantity very small, 

 cannot be considered wonderful, when it is remembered that, 

 like thermo-electricity, it is evolved entirely within the sub- 

 stance of metals retaining all their conducting power. But 

 an agent which is conducted along metallic wires in the 

 manner described ; which, while so passing, possesses the 

 peculiar magnetic actions and force of an electric current ; 

 which can agitate and convulse the limbs of a frog, and 

 which finally can produce a spark by its discharge through 

 charcoal, can only be electricity." 



Faraday proceeds, in the third section of his first series, 

 to communicate his views as to the state into which the in- 

 ducible wire is thrown during the continuance of the induc- 

 tive action upon it ; but as he subsequently abandons the 



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