A perusal of this paper brings home the conviction that Oersted realized fairly well the forces which came into play in his experiment; for in one place, he speaks of the effect as due to a transverse force emanating from the conductor conveying the current, and again as a conflict acting in a revolving manner around the wire. A complete statement of the nature of the mechanical force exerted by a conductor conveying a current on a magnetic needle was given almost immediately by Ampère, a master analyst and accomplished experimentalist. [Illustration: FIG. 23 Magnetic field surrounding a conductor carrying a current] It will stand for all time in the history of science, that in less than two months after the publication of Oersted's memoir, Ampère succeeded in showing the mechanical effect in magnitude and direction of an element of current not only on the magnetic needle itself, but also on a similar element of an adjacent conductor conveying a current, thereby founding a new science in the department of physics, the science of electro-dynamics. Oersted does not appear to have given thought to the practical possibilities of his discovery. While appreciating the utilitarian in science, he evidently preferred the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. In a discourse which he delivered in 1814 before the University of Copenhagen, he put himself on record when he said that "The real laborer in the scientific field chooses knowledge as his highest aim." So said Plato ages before, and so said Archimedes, who held that it was undesirable for a philosopher to seek to apply the discoveries of science to any practical end. The screw which he invented, his catapults and burning mirrors, show, however, that when necessary the Syracusan mathematician could come down from the serene heights of investigation to the prosaic arena of application. Before Oersted spoke of "the real laborer," Thomas Young had affirmed that "Those who possess the genuine spirit of scientific investigation are content to proceed in their researches without inquiring at every step what they gain by their newly discovered lights, and to what practical purposes they are applicable." [Illustration: FIG. 24 Magnetic whirl surrounding a wire through which a current is passing]