186 



Electro-Magnetic Motors. 



can be discovered wh}-, when the acting- surfaces are, by sldlfnl 

 mechanism, bronght as near as possible, without contact, the continu- 

 ed exertion of the power should not generate a continued rotary 

 movement, of a degree of energy inferior indeed to that exerted in 

 actual contact, but still nearly approximating to it. 



6. As the power can be generated cheaply and certainly, — as it can 

 be continued indefinitely, — as it has been very greatly increased by 

 very simple means,— as we have no knowledge of its limit, and may 

 therefore presume on an indefinite augmentation of its energy, it is 

 much to be desired, that the investigation should be prosecuted with 

 zeal, aided hy correct scientific knowledge^ by mechanical skill, and by 

 ample funds. It may, therefore, be reasonably hoped, that science 

 and art, the handmaids of discovery, will both receive from this in- 

 teresting research, a liberal reward. 



Science has thus, most unexpectedly, placed in our hands a new 

 power of great but unknown energy. 



It does not evoke the winds from their caverns ; nor give wings to 

 water by the urgency of heat; nor drive to exhaustion the muscular 

 power of animals; nor operate by complicated mechanism; nor ac- 

 cumulate hydraulic force by damming the vexed torrents ; nor 

 summon any other form of gravitating force ; but, by the simplest 

 means — the mere contact of metallic surfaces of small extent, with. 

 feeble chemical agents, a power everywhere diffused through nature, 

 but generally concealed from our senses, is mysteriously evolved, and by 

 circulation in insulated wires, it is still more mysteriously augmented, 

 a thousand and a thousand fold, until it breaks forth with incredible 

 energy ; there is no appreciable interval between its first evolution and 

 its full maturity, and the infant starts up a giant. 



Nothing since the discovery of gravitation and of the structure of 

 the celestial systems, is so wonderful as the power evolved by gal- 

 vanism; whether we contemplate it in the muscular convulsions of 

 animals, the chemical decompositions, the solar brightness of the 

 galvanic light, the dissipating consuming heat, and, more than all, in 

 the magnetic energy, which leaves far behind all previous artificial 

 accumulations of this power, and reveals, as there is full reason to 

 believe, the grand secret of terrestrial magnetism itself. 



B. S. 



