[CHAPTER IX]
AETHER AND MAGNETISM
Art. 86. Electro-magnetism.--We have now to look at the relation of magnetism to electricity, or, in other words, to prove the identity that exists between magnetism and electricity. In [Art. 78] we have proved the identity between electricity and light, so that if we can now prove the identity between electricity and magnetism, then, wherever we get aetherial light waves, we must also get aetherial electro-magnetic waves.
As the light waves due to the vibrations of the Aether are practically universal in extent, then it must follow, if the identity of the light waves with electro-magnetic waves is established, that the universality of electro-magnetic waves is established also, with the natural result, that, wherever we get these electro-magnetic waves, there we shall have the conditions by which all electro-magnetic phenomena are produced.
Now it can be demonstrated by actual experiment that wherever we get a circular current of electricity, there we have magnetic phenomena manifested. The two are inseparably connected, and it is impossible to obtain the one without the other. For example, suppose we have a wire conveying a current of electricity and make it into a coil as in Figure 15, what is the result? The result is, that the coil of wire has actually been converted into a magnet.
It will attract iron filings that are brought near it, and also magnetize an iron bar placed in the centre of the coils, and convert that into a magnet. Indeed, there is nothing which can be done by an ordinary bar magnet which cannot be done by a coiled wire conveying an electric current.
From this and similar experiments it can be demonstrated that wherever we get a circular current of electricity, there, associated with that current, are all the phenomena incidental to and associated with the ordinary bar magnet. This leads us to the truth discovered by Ampère, that magnetism is nothing more or less than electricity in rotation, or that it is due to a whirl of electricity circulating round the molecule of any body. From certain experiments which he made in relation to the mutual action of two circuits on each other, with currents flowing through them, he came to the conclusion that the magnetism of the molecule of each magnet is due to electric currents circulating round it.
The question arises as to what effect our new theory of the Aether has upon Ampère's theory: does it confirm it, or does it destroy it? We have learned that every atom has its aetherial atmosphere, so to speak, which is bound to the atom by the Law of Gravitation ([Art. 45]). We have also learned that Aether has an electrical basis, as proved by Maxwell and Hertz, so that we learn that every atom has really an aetherial electric atmosphere in association with it. We have only to conceive of this atmosphere being set in rotation either by the rotation of the atom or molecule itself, or by outside agencies, and we have at once a physical interpretation of Ampère's theory of magnetism in the rotation of electric currents around the atom, such currents being due to the circulating or rotating motion of the Aether which surrounds the atom or molecule.
