XXIX. Farther researches on the magnetic phenomena produced by electricity; with some new experiments on the properties of electrified bodies in their relations to conducting powers and temperature

Abstract

I. In my letter to Dr. Wollaston on the new facts discovered by M. Oersted, which the Society has done me the honour to publish, I mentioned, that I was not able to render a bar of steel magnetic by transmitting the electrical discharge across it through a tube filled with sulphuric acid; and I have likewise mentioned, that the electrical discharge passed across a piece of steel through air, rendered it less magnetic than when passed through a metallic wire; and I attributed the first circumstance to the sulphuric acid being too bad a conductor to transmit a sufficient quantity of electricity for the effect; and the second, to the electricity passing through air in a more diffused state than through metals. To gain some distinct knowledge on the relations of the different conductors to the magnetism produced by electricity, I instituted a series of experiments, which led to very decisive results, and confirmed my first views.