On the supposed properties of the electric and magnetic fluids

• Published in: Abstracts of the Papers Communicated to the Royal Society of London
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 1851
• Subjects: North Pole
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspl.1843.0022; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspl.1843.0022

The author is of opinion that electricity is a single undecomposable fluid, and that the distinction usually made into vitreous and resinous, or positive and negative electricities, is derived altogether from the direction of its motion and the circumstances under which it is presented; and, according as it is found on a conducting or non-conducting body, it is positive in the former case and negative in the latter. The quality of the electricity is, according to the author, modified by the form of the conducting body, which, when globular, opposes its escape; but, when pointed, facilitates its passage in a current. He considers the magnetic fluid as obeying the same law’as the electric fluid, that is, moving in a current, which when aided, and not interrupted, will always be found positive, or having a north pole, at that end of the conductor or magnet where the fluid is escaping; and negative, or with a southern polarity, at the opposite extremity.