Fig. 33.
Fig. 34.
It may be shown as follows that the conception of a constant quantity of electricity can be regarded as the expression of a pure fact. Picture to yourself any sort of electrical conductor (Fig. 34); cut it up into a large number of small pieces, and place these pieces by means of an insulated rod at a distance of one centimetre from an electrical body which acts with unit of force on an equal and like-constituted body at the same distance. Take the sum of the forces which this last body exerts on the single pieces of the conductor. The sum of these forces will be the quantity of electricity on the whole conductor. It remains the same, whether we change the form and the size of the conductor, or whether we bring it near or move it away from a second electrical conductor, so long as we keep it insulated, that is, do not discharge it.
A basis of reality for the notion of electric quantity seems also to present itself from another quarter. If a current, that is, in the usual view, a definite quantity of electricity per second, is sent through a column of acidulated water; in the direction of the positive stream, hydrogen, but in the opposite direction, oxygen is liberated at the extremities of the column. For a given quantity of electricity a given quantity of oxygen appears. You may picture the column of water as a column of hydrogen and a column of oxygen, fitted into each other, and may say the electric current is a chemical current and vice versa. Although this notion is more difficult to adhere to in the field of statical electricity and with non-decomposable conductors, its further development is by no means hopeless.
The concept quantity of electricity, thus, is not so aerial as might appear, but is able to conduct us with certainty through a multitude of varied phenomena, and is suggested to us by the facts in almost palpable form. We can collect electrical force in a body, measure it out with one body into another, carry it over from one body into another, just as we can collect a liquid in a vessel, measure it out with one vessel into another, or pour it from one into another.
For the analysis of mechanical phenomena, a metrical notion, derived from experience, and bearing the designation work, has proved itself useful. A machine can be set in motion only when the forces acting on it can perform work.
Fig. 35.