Bibliographical history of electricity & magnetism, chronologically arranged
History
Bibliographical history of electricity & magnetism, chronologically arranged
Electricity -- History; Electricity -- History -- Bibliography; Magnetism -- History; Magnetism -- History -- Bibliography; Science, Medieval
It was shown by Savery that his artificial magnets were preferable
to loadstones. The first recorded attempt to make artificial magnets
is credited to one John Sellers, believed to be the author of “The
Practical Navigator,” of which the earliest edition appeared in 1669,
and of “The Coasting Pilot,” published about 1680. An “Answer to Some
Magnetical Inquiries Proposed in (the preceding) No. 23, pp. 423–424,”
will be found in _Phil. Trans._ for 1667, Vol. II. pp. 478–479
and in the following abridgments: Baddam, 1745, Vol. I. p. 86; Hutton,
Vol. I. p. 166 (as of No. 26, p. 478); John Lowthorp, Vol. II. p. 601.
Reference is likewise made to this invention of Sellers at Vol. I. p.
86 of the “Memoirs of the Royal Society,” London, 1739, and in a paper
by Réaumur, in the “Mémoires de l’Académie Française” for the year 1723.
REFERENCES.--Savery, “Magnetical Observations and Experiments,”
also _Phil. Trans._, Vol. XXXVI. pp. 295–340; and the following
abridgments: Hutton, Vol. VII. p. 400; Reid and Gray, Vol. VI.
p. 166; Eames and Martyn, Vol. VI. p. 260; Baddam, 1745, Vol.
IX. p. 57; Geo. Adams, “Essay on Electricity,” 1785, p. 451.
=A.D. 1731.=--On the 25th of November the Royal Society were
honoured by a visit from the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Lorraine,
the last named being enrolled as a member during the evening.
Experiments were performed “On the strength of Lord Paisley’s
loadstone,” “On Dr. Frobenius’s phlogiston,” and “On the electrical
observations of Mr. Stephen Grey.” These experiments which, it is
said, “succeeded notwithstanding the largeness of the company,” showed
the facility with which electricity passes through great lengths of
conductors and are worth noting as being the first of their nature.
=A.D. 1732.=--Régnault (Le Père Noël) gives in “Les Entretiens
Physiques,” etc., Vol. I. Nos. 15 and 16, the tables of the declination
at Paris from the years 1600–1730, and treats at length of the merits
of the loadstone and of the magnetic needle.
In Vols. II, IV and V he discourses about the extent of the magnetic
fluid and explains the phenomena of meteors, St. Elmo’s fire, thunder,
etc., besides recording the experiments of Grey, Dufay and others.
=A.D. 1733.=--Dufay (Charles François de Cisternay), French scientist
and superintendent of the _Jardin du Roi_, now the _Jardin des
Plantes_, of Paris (in which latter position he was succeeded by
Buffon), communicates to the French Academy of Sciences the history of
electricity brought down to the year 1732 (_Dantzig Memoirs_, Vol. I.
p. 195).
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