Makers of Electricity

by Brother Potamian; James J. Walsh

To-day we know that nickel and cobalt behave like iron, whilst antimony, bismuth, copper, silver and gold are susceptible of being influenced by powerful electro-magnets, showing what has been termed diamagnetic phenomena. Even liquids and gases, in Faraday's classical experiments, yielded to the influence of his great magnet; and Professor Dewar, in the same Royal Institution, exposed some of his liquid air and liquid oxygen to the influence of Faraday's electromagnet and found them to be strongly attracted, thus behaving like the paramagnetic bodies, iron, nickel and cobalt.

Gilbert observes in all his magnets two points, one near each end, in which the force, or, as he terms it, "the supreme attractional power," is concentrated. Like Peregrinus, he calls these points the poles of the magnet, and the line joining them its magnetic axis. With the aid of his steel versorium, he recognizes that similar poles are mutually hostile, whilst opposite poles seize and hold each other in friendly embrace. He also satisfies himself that the energy of magnets resides not only in their extremities, but that it permeates "their inmost parts, being entire in the whole and entire in each part." This is exactly what Peregrinus said in 1269 and what we say to-day; it is nothing else than the molecular theory proposed by Weber, extended by Ewing and universally accepted.

At any rate, Gilbert is quite certain that whatever magnetism may be, it is not, like electricity, a material, ponderable substance. He ascertained this by weighing in the most accurate scales of a goldsmith a rod of iron before and after it had been rubbed with the lodestone, and then observing that the weight is precisely the same in both cases, being "neither less nor more."

Without referring to the prior discovery of Norman, whom he calls "a skilled navigator and ingenious artificer," Gilbert satisfies himself that not only the magnet, but all the space surrounding it, possesses magnetic properties; for the magnet "sends its force abroad in all directions, according to its energy and quality." This region of influence Norman called a sphere of "vertue," and Gilbert an "orbis virtutis," which is the Latin equivalent; we call it a "magnetic field," or field of force, which is less expressive and less appropriate. With wonderful intuition, Gilbert sees this space filled with lines of magnetic virtue passing out radially from his spherical lodestone, which lines he calls "rays of magnetic force."

Clerk Maxwell was so fascinated with this beautiful concept that he made it the work of his life to study the field of force due to electrified bodies, to magnets and to conductors conveying currents; his powerful intellect visualized those lines and gave them accurate mathematical expression in the great treatise on electricity and magnetism which he gave to the world in 1873.

Gilbert observes that the lodestone may be spherical or oblong; "whatever the shape, imperfect or irregular, verticity is present; there are poles," and the lodestones "have the selfsame way of turning to the poles of the world." He knows that a compass-needle is not drawn bodily towards the pole, and does not hesitate in this instance to give credit to his countryman, Robert Norman, for having clearly stated this fact and aptly demonstrated it. Following Norman, he floats a needle in a vessel by means of a piece of cork, and notices that on whatever part of the surface of the water it may be placed, the needle settles down after a few swings invariably in the same direction. His words are: "It revolves on its iron center and is not borne towards the rim of the vessel."

Gilbert knew nothing about the mechanical couple that came into play, but he knew the fact; and, with the instinct of the philosopher, tested it in a variety of ways.

We explain the orientation of the compass-needle by saying that it is acted upon by a pair of equal and opposite forces due to the influence of the terrestrial magnetic poles on each end of the needle and by showing that such a couple can produce rotation, but not translation.

We find Gilbert working not only with steel needles and iron bars, but also with rings of iron. He strokes them with a natural magnet and feels certain that he has magnetized them. He assures us that "one of the poles will be at the point rubbed and the other will be at the opposite side." To show that the ring is really magnetized, he cuts it across, opens it out, and finds that the ends exhibit polar properties.

A favorite piece of apparatus with Gilbert, as with Peregrinus, was a lodestone ground down into globular form. He called it a terrella, a miniature earth, and used it extensively for reproducing the phenomena described by magnetizers, travelers and navigators. He breaks up terrellas, in order to examine the magnetic condition of their inner parts. There is not a doubtful utterance in his description of what he finds; he speaks clearly and emphatically. "If magnetic bodies be divided, or in any way broken up, each several part hath a north and a south end"; i.e., each part will be a complete magnet.