THE 
EDINBURGH 
PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL. 
Art. I . — On an apparent Paradoxical Galvanic Experiment . , 
By J. C. Oersted, Professor of Chemistry and Natural Phi- 
losophy in the University of Copenhagenj and F. R. S. E. 
Communicated by the Author. 
In k Memoir, published some months agOj by M. Von Moll, 
at Utrecht*, this philosopher (already known from various expe- 
rimental researches) describes an experiment^ which, at first 
sight, appears to indicate a new class of galvanic phenomena. 
I have submitted this experiment to an attentive examination* 
Fig. 1 . of Plate VII. is the apparatus of M. Von Moll. ABCD 
is a perpendicular section of a plate of zinc, bent in such a way 
that its extremities touch, and form a closed circuit. NS is a 
magnetic needle, properly suspended. The part A of the cir- 
cuit is plunged in acMulated water. 
If any point of this circuit under the water bc touched by a 
piece of brass, the motion of the needle indicates an electric cur- 
rent. In order to be certain that the metallic continuity was not 
interrupted by the interposition of a part of the fluid, I substi- 
tuted for that in Fig. 1., the circuit ABODE, Fig. 2,, cut out 
df a plate of zinc. The effect described by the Dutch philoso- 
pher was produced by this circuit likewise ; but I soon disco- 
vered that it was owing to the ordinary galvanic circuits, like 
that formed by the copper GH, the zinc GA, and the fluid be- 
* Edinburgh Phih Journal^ vol, ix. p. 167. 
VOI,. X. NO. 20. APRIL 1824. 
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