536 
PROFESSORS RITCHIE AND STEVELLY’S REMARKS. 
meter, has an effect on the shock and 
spark. Mr. M’Gauley exhibited to the 
Section wire coiled with the greatest ac- 
curacy, by a machine he had construct- 
ed, which was capable of covering any 
wire, manufacturing pianoforte strings, 
&c., in any length, without any care on 
the part of the operater, to the enor- 
mous extent, if necessary, of 7000 feet per 
hour. The wire which he exhibited, as 
several in the Section knew, was not 
more perfectly manufactured than the 
many thousand feet he had covered 
lately. He thought the shock and spark 
might arise in this way ; a current of 
electricity passes through the wire from 
copper to zinc ; its inductive action on 
the wire ceases suddenly, by the contact 
with the battery being interrupted; the 
disturbed equilibrium of the wire is sud- 
denly restored. The electricity of the 
battery seems, in passing through the 
helix, to acquire an augmented intensi- 
ty ; but from these 'facts it is evidently 
not so, 4thly. The spark and shock 
appear to demonstrate that currents do 
not circulate around the magnet. If 
they do, as is evident, they are capable, 
as we know from secondary currents, of 
producing a spark and shock. The 
helix, of itself, is capable of these ef- 
fects; let the helix and the magnet act 
conjointly; these effects ought to be 
doubled; the contrary is the fact; they 
may be annihilated, and they ought, 
for the magnet, by its electrical action, 
retains the helix in a' state of exci- 
tation. The universal — at least in 
other cases — law of electrical induction, 
if applied to magnetic phenomena, easily 
explains them. He did not think it by 
any means certain, that electrical action 
consists in the transmission of a fluids 
and not the mere arrangement of part- 
tides : this idea seemed opposed by an 
experiment he made some time ago. 
He never could believe that the action of 
the galvanic battery consisted in the 
passage of electricity through the fluid 
from zinc to copper, and along the con- 
necting wire from copper to zinc; he 
thought that the repulsion which sent 
the electricity through the fluid— an im- 
perfect conductor — ought to prevent its 
return along the wire. He constructed 
a small box of wood, being a cube inter- 
nally of three inches, divided it into 
twelve water-proof cells by well-cement- 
ed glass plates ; placed in the cells six 
copper and six zinc plates, one in 
each, in the usual galvanic order; 
filled the cells with a charge of J in 
.19 sulphuric acid, 1 in 100 nitric 
acid, and water, and connected the ex- 
treme plates with a delicate galvanome- 
ter, but no effect yjroduced, except when 
the copper and zinc were in the same 
cell, or the cells were in conducting com- 
munication ; but he did not deem this 
experiment conclusive against his idea, 
since, although induction might occur 
from particle to particle, through an im- 
perfectly conducting fluid, it by no means 
follows this inductive influence should 
take place through the particles or glass, 
since the very insulating power of glass, | 
or other substances, may arise from the ji 
incapacity of their particles for electrical j 
arrangement. ! 
If it be true, that electrical effect is 
the arrangement, and not the transmis- 
sion, of particles, he thought we might 
easily understand the agitation of the 
muscles of a frog, caused in hreahing 
contact with galvanic battery, even of a 
single circle; the dangerous effects to 
those in the neighbourhood of the dis- 
charge of lightning from cloud to cloud ; 
and the spark and shock obtained from 
a quantity of wire — all of w'hich proba- 
bly arise from the same cause, and are 
the consequence of the same universal 
law. 
II 
ii 
Professor Ritchie rose to remark that 
without intending to convey the least 
censure on the gentleman, he could not 
but observe, that he had been so entirely 
occupied with his own researches as not 
to have intended to anything done by 
others, for there was really nothing new 
in this paper — and he gave examples. 
Professor Stevelly remarked, that if 
the only objection to it were the crank 
and magnetic pendulum networking to 
gether, in a large machine that could 
be at once remedied, by M^hat was well 
known in practical mechanics, a slipping 
coupling, as, when the steam-engine 
and water-wheels were made to work 
together, was generally done, or as in 
the winding part of the common clock. 
The great objection was the small dis- 
tance through which the power worked, 
onesixteenth of an inch ; thus, even if a 
magnet could be produced that would 
lift IjOOOlb, would still render the nu- 
merical value of the horse-power almost 
evanescent compared with the steam- 
engine. 
