Smithsonian Institution - United States National Museum - Bulletin 240: Contributions From the Museum of History and Technology; Papers 34-44 on Science and TechnologyMuseum of History and Technology (U.S.)
History
Smithsonian Institution - United States National Museum - Bulletin 240: Contributions From the Museum of History and Technology; Papers 34-44 on Science and Technology
Museum of History and Technology (U.S.)
Science -- History; Technology -- History
[2] Some little-known but delightful observations in the prehistory
of electromagnetism are described in a letter written by G. W.
SCHILLING from London to the Berlin Academy on July 8, 1769,
published as "Sur les phénomènes de l'Anguleil Tremblante"
[_Nouveaux Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences et
Belles-Lettres_, 1770 (Berlin, 1772), pp. 68-74], translated to
French from the original German. The letter recounts a multitude
of experiments with various electric eels. The two observations
of electromagnetic interest are that a piece of iron held by the
hand in the eel's tank could be felt quivering even when the
fish was stationary several inches away, and a compass needle
showed a deflection, both in the water near the fish, and
outside the tank, also with the fish stationary.
[3] ABRAHAM BENNET, _Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
of London_ (1787), p. 26.
[4] Op. cit. (footnote 1), p. 403.
[5] _Philosophical Magazine_ (1800), vol. 7, pp. 289-311. [For a
facsimile reprint, see _Galvani-Volta_ (Bern Dibner's Burndy
Library Publication No. 7), Norwalk, Connecticut, 1952.]
[6] MICHAEL FARADAY, _Experimental Researches in Electricity_, vol. 1
(London, 1839), paragraph 739, dated January 1834.
[7] Ibid., sec. 741.
[8] JAMES CUMMING, "On the Application of Magnetism as a Measure of
Electricity," _Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical
Society_ (1821), vol. 1, pp. 282-286. [Also published in
_Philosophical Magazine_ (1822), vol. 60, pp. 253-257.]
[9] H. C. OERSTED, _Experimenta Circa Effectum Conflictus Electrici in
Acum Magneticam_ (Copenhagen, July 21, 1820).
[10] Full details of Oersted's work and publications are in _Oersted
and the Discovery of Electromagnetism_ (Bern Dibner's Burndy
Library Publication No. 18), Norwalk, Connecticut, 1961. The
original Latin version and first English translation are
reproduced in _Isis_ (1928), vol. 34, pp. 435-444.
[11] A. M. AMPÈRE, _Annales de Chimie et de Physique_ (1820), vol. 15,
p. 67. The word "galvanometer" had been used much earlier by
BISCHOF, "On Galvanism and its Medical Applications," _The
Medical and Physical Journal_ (1802), vol 7, p. 529, for a form
of goldleaf electroscope shown here in figure 2, but this use of
the word does not seem to have been adopted by others.
[12] Op. cit. (footnote 6), paragraph 283, dated January 1833. A
similar attitude was expressed in the same year by CHRISTIE,
_Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London_
(1833), vol. 123, p. 96: "I adopt the word current as a
convenient mode of expression, ... but I would not be considered
as adopting any theoretical views on the subject...."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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