A cube of copper suspended between the poles of a powerful electro-magnet.

By the use of the apparatus (Fig. 242) Faraday proved that every substance, whether solid, fluid, or gaseous, was subject to magnetic influences, assuming either the axial or equatorial position. The apparatus consists of a prolongation of the poles of a powerful electro-magnet, between which the cube of copper, weighing from a quarter to half a pound, suspended by a thread, may be set spinning or rotating. If the electro-magnet is connected with the battery, the cube stops immediately, and whilst still in the same position or in the magnetic field, with the magnet in full action, it is impossible to set it spinning or twisting round again. (Fig. 242.)

A large number of other substances, solid, liquid, and gaseous, were submitted to the action of the magnet, the liquids and gases being hermetically sealed in glass tubes, and some of the results are detailed in the following list:

Bodies that point axially, or are paramagnetic, like a suspended needle.

Iron.
Nickel.
Cobalt.
Manganese.
Chromium.
Cerium.
Titanium.
Palladium.
Platinum.
Osmium.
Paper.
Sealing-wax.
Fluor spar.
Peroxide of lead.
Plumbago.
China ink.
Berlin Porcelain.
Red-lead.
Sulphate of zinc.
Shell-lac.
Silkworm-gut.
Asbestos.
Vermilion.
Tourmaline.
Charcoal.
All salts of iron,
when the latter is basic.
Oxide of titanium.
Oxide of chromium.
Chromic acid.
Salts of manganese.
Salts of chromium.
Oxygen, which stands
alone as a paramagnetic gas.

Bodies that point equatorially, or are diamagnetic, like Faraday's heavy glass.

Bismuth.
Antimony.
Zinc.
Tin.
Cadmium.
Sodium.
Mercury.
Lead.
Silver.
Copper.
Gold.
Arsenic.
Uranium.
Rhodium.
Iridium.
Tungsten.
Rock crystal.
The mineral acids.
Alum.
Glass.
Litharge.
Common salt.
Nitre.
Phosphorus.
Sulphur.
Resin.
Spermaceti.
Iceland spar.
Tartaric acid.
Citric acid.
Water.
Alcohol.
Ether.
Sugar.
Starch.
Gum-arabic.
Wood.
Ivory.
Dried mutton.
Fresh beef.
Dried beef.
Apple.
Bread.
Leather.
Fresh blood.
Dried blood.
Caoutchouc.
Jet.
Turpentine.
Olive oil.
Hydrogen.
Carbonic acid.
Carbonic oxide.
Nitrous oxide (moderately).
Nitric oxide (very slightly).
Olefiant gas.
Coal gas.

Nitrogen is neither paramagnetic nor diamagnetic, and is equivalent to a vacuum. Magnetically considered, it is like space itself, which may be considered as zero.

The term magnetic Faraday proposes should be a general one, like that of electricity, and include all the phenomena and effects produced by the power, and he proposes that bodies magnetic in the sense of iron should be called paramagnetic, so that the division would stand thus:

Magnetic ......... { Paramagnetic,
{ Diamagnetic;