Scientific American Supplement, No. 488, May 9, 1885Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 488, May 9, 1885
Various
Science -- Periodicals
The corresponding hydrodynamic phenomena may be regarded in a similar
manner; thus, when a vibrating or pulsating body immersed in a
liquid surrounds itself with a field of vibrations, or communicates
vibrations to other immersed bodies within that vibratory field, the
phenomena so produced may be looked upon as phenomena of hydrodynamic
induction, while on the other hand, when a vibrating or pulsating body
attracts or repels another pulsating or vibratory body (whether
such vibrations be produced by outside mechanical agency or by
hydrodynamical induction), then the phenomena so produced are those of
hydrodynamical action, and it is in this way that we shall treat the
phenomena throughout this article, using the words _induction_ and
_direct action_ in these somewhat restricted meanings.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.]
[Illustration: FIG. 5.]
In the hydrodynamical experiments of Professor Bjerknes all the
phenomena of magnetic induction can be reproduced directly and
perfectly, but the phenomena of magnetic action are not so exactly
reproduced, that is to say, they are subject to a sort of inversion.
Thus when two bodies are pulsating together and in the same phase
(i. e., both expanding and both contracting at the same time), they
mutually attract each other: but if they are pulsating in opposite
phases, repulsion is the result. From this one experiment taken by
itself we might be led to infer that bodies pulsating in similar
phases are the hydrodynamic analogues of magnets having their opposite
poles presented to one another, and that bodies pulsating in opposite
phases are analogous to a presentation of similar magnetic poles; but
it will be seen at once that this cannot be the case if three magnetic
poles or three pulsating bodies be considered instead of only two. It
is clear, on the one hand, that three similar magnet poles will all
repel one another, while, on the other, of three pulsating bodies,
two of them must always attract one another, while a third would be
repelled; and, moreover, two similarly pulsating bodies set up around
them the same lines of force as two similar magnetic poles, and two
oppositely pulsating bodies produce lines of force identically the
same as those set up by two magnets of opposite polarity. Thus it
will be seen that there is a break in the analogy between the
hydrodynamical and the magnetic phenomena (if a uniform inversion
of the effects can be called a break, for it is, as far as Professor
Bjerknes' experiments go, without an exception); and if by any means
this inversion could be reinverted, all the phenomena of magnetism and
diamagnetism could be exactly reproduced by hydrodynamical analogues;
there would thus be grounds for forming a theory of magnetism on the
basis of mechanical phenomena, and a very important link in the chain
of the correlation of the physical forces would be supplied.
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