Chapter XXVI: Part 26

42. Of course it will follow, that the oppositely polarized ethereal atmospheres thus produced, one on each surface of the electric which keeps them apart, must exercise toward each other an attraction perfectly analogous to that which has been supposed to be exercised by the imaginary heterogeneous electric fluids of Dufay. The electro-ether[67] being elastic, a condensation over each of the charged surfaces, proportionable to the attractive force must ensue; while over the surface of an electrified conductor, the similarly polarized atoms, not being attracted by those in an oppositely polarized atmosphere beneath the surface, tend, by their reciprocally repulsive reagency, to exist further apart than in a neutral state. Hence, the electro-ether, as it exists over the surface of an insulated conductor, is rendered rarer, while, as existing over the surfaces of charged panes or Leyden jars, it must be in a state of condensation.[68] And, consequently, while the space perceptibly electrified by the charge of a conductor, for equal areas and charging power, is much more extensive than the space in which the charge of a coated pane is perceptible, the striking distance being likewise much greater; yet upon any body, successively subjected to a discharge from each, the effect will be more potent when produced by means of the pane.

_Ignition, Electrolysis, and Magnetism, Secondary Effects of Frictional Discharges; or, in other words, of Polarizing Electro-ethereal Waves._

43. In proportion as a wire is small in comparison with the charge which it may be made the means of neutralizing, the conducting power seems to be more dependent on the sectional area,[69] and less upon the extent of surface. The reciprocal repulsion of the similarly polarized ethereal particles must tend always to make them seek the surface, but at the same time their attraction for the ethereo-ponderable particles composing the wire has the opposite effect, and tends to derange these from their normal polar state of quiescence. Commensurate with the extent in which this state is subverted, is the resulting heat, electrolytic power, and electro-magnetic influence. The phenomena last mentioned are, however, secondary effects consequent to the participation of the ethereo-ponderable matter in the undulations resulting from the statical discharge.

44. Such effects, making allowance for the extreme minuteness of the time occupied by the process, are probably, in all cases, proportional to the degree in which the ponderable matter is effected, up to the point at which it is dissipated by deflagration; but the duration of a statical discharge being almost infinitely minute for any length of coil which can conveniently be subjected thereto, the electro-magnetic and other effects of a statical discharge are not commensurate with the intensity of the affection of the wire.

45. There is, in fact, this additional reason for the diversity between the electro-magnetic power of a statical discharge, as compared with that of the voltaic series: any wire which is of sufficient length and tenuity to display the maximum power of deflagration by the former, cannot serve for the same purpose in the case of the latter. Moreover, the form of a helix closely wound, so that the coatings may touch, which is that most favourable for the reiteration of the magnetic influence of the circuit upon an iron rod, cannot be adopted in the case of statical discharges of high intensity, since the proximity of the circumvolutions would enable the ethereal waves, notwithstanding the interposition of cotton or silk, to cross superficially from one to the other, parallel to the axis of the included iron, instead of pursuing the circuitous channel afforded by the helix with the intensity requisite to the polarization of the ponderable atoms.

_The extreme Diversity, as respects striking Distance, between the
direct Effects of Frictional Electricity and those directly arising
from Galvanic Reaction._

46. The intensity of the excitement produced by different electrical machines is estimated to be as the relative lengths of the sparks which proceed from their prime conductors respectively. Admitting that the relative intensity were merely as the length of the spark, not as the square of that length, still there would be an infinite difference between the intensity of a voltaic series and that of electrical machines, if measured by this test. Large electrical machines, like that at the Polytechnic Institution, London, give sparks at twenty inches and more; while, agreeably to Gassiott’s experiments, a Groves’s battery of 320 pairs, in full power, would not, before contact, give a spark at _any distance, however minute_. It follows, that, as respects the species of intensity which is indicated by length of sparks, or striking distance, the difference between the electricity of the most powerful voltaic series and electrical machines is not to be represented by any degree of _disparity_; it proves that galvanism proper and electricity proper are heterogeneous.

47. It should be recollected that the intensity of galvanic action in a series of 320 pairs, excepting the loss from conduction, would be to that of one pair as 320 to 1.[70] Of course, the striking distance of a battery of one pair would be 320 times less than nothing: 320 below zero.

48. We may infer that the undulatory polarization of ethereo-ponderable matter is the primary, direct, and characteristic effect of galvanic excitement, in its more energetic modifications. Yet, that by peculiar care in securing insulation, as in the water batteries of Cross and Gassiott, ethereal undulations may be produced, with the consequent accumulation of ethereal polarity requisite to give sparks before contact, agreeably to the experiments of those ingenious philosophers.

49. Hence it may be presumed that, during intense ethereo-ponderable polarization, superficial ethereal waves may always be a secondary effect, although the conducting power of the reagents, requisite to the constitution of powerful galvanic batteries, is inconsistent with that accumulation of ethereal polarity which constitutes a statical spark-giving charge.

50. As all the members forming a voltaic series have to be discharged in one circuit, the energy of the effort to discharge, and the velocity of the consequent undulations must be, _cæteris paribus_, as the number of members which co-operate to produce the discharge. Of course the more active the ethereo-ponderable waves, the greater must be their efficacy in producing ethereal waves of polarization, as a secondary effect, agreeably to the suggestions above made, (49, 36.)

51. Hence, in a battery consisting of one galvanic pair excited by reagents of great chemical energy and conducting power, the electro-magnetic effects are pre-eminent; while De Luc’s electric columns, consisting of several thousands of minute pairs, feeble as to their chemical and conducting efficacy, are pre-eminent for statical spark-giving power, (48.) This seems to be quite consistent; since, on the one hand, the waves of polarization must be larger and slower as the pairs are bigger and fewer; and, on the other hand, smaller and more active as the pairs are more minute and more numerous.

_On the perfect similitude between the Polarity communicated to Iron Filings by a Magnetized Steel Bar and a Galvanized Wire._

52. If by a sieve, or any other means, iron filings be duly strewed over a paper, resting on a bar magnet, they will all become magnets, so as to arrange themselves in rows like the links of a chain. Each of the little magnets thus created will, at its outermost end, have a polarity similar to that of the pole (of the magnet) with which it may be affiliated. Of course the resulting ferruginous rows formed severally by the two different poles of the bar will have polarities as opposite as those of the said poles.

53. In an analogous mode, if two wires be made the media of a galvanic discharge, iron filings, under their influence, will receive a magnetic polarity, arranging themselves about each wire like so many tangents to as many radii proceeding from its axis: those magnetized by one wire reacting with such as are magnetized by the other.

54. The affections of the ferruginous particles during the continuance of the current so called are precisely like those of the same particles when under the influence of the bar magnet. The great discordancy is in the fact that the influence of the magnet is permanent, while that of the wire is indebted for existence to a series of oppositely polarizing but transient impulses which proceed toward the middle of the circuit from each side, so as to produce reciprocal neutralization by meeting midway.

55. The effect upon the filings, as originally pointed out by Oersted, is precisely such as would arise were the ponderable matter of the wire, resolved by each impulse into innumerable little magnets, situated so as to form tangents to as many radii proceeding from the axis of the wire.

56. Independently of the filings, the wires react with each other as if their constitution, during subjection to the discharge, were such as above supposed. When the discharges through them concur in direction, they attract, because the left side of one is next the right side of the other, bringing the opposite poles of their little magnets into proximity; but when the discharge is made in opposite directions, the two right or the two left sides will be in proximity, and will, by the consequent approximation of the similar poles of the little magnets, be productive of repulsion.

57. From these last-mentioned facts and considerations, it must be evident that, assuming that there is in a galvanized wire a derangement of the poles of the constituent ethereo-ponderable particles analogous to that permanently existing in magnetized steel, involves no contradiction, no absurdity, nor any thing but what is consistent with the researches and inferences of Davy, Farraday, and other eminent investigators of the phenomena of nature.

_Process by which the Ethereo-ponderable Atoms within a Galvanic
Circuit are polarized by the Chemical Reaction._

58. In order that an ethereo-ponderable particle of oxygen in any aqueous solution shall unite with an ethereo-ponderable particle of zinc in a galvanic pair, there must be a partial revolution of the whole row of ethereo-ponderable zinc atoms, with which the atom assailed is catenated by the attractions between dissimilar poles; and likewise there must be a series of decompositions and recompositions between every atom of water existing in the circuit, an atom of hydrogen being eliminated at one end, an atom of oxygen at the other. The impulse must extend through the negative plate to the conductor, by which it communicates with the zinc or electro-positive plate. When the circuit is open, the power of combination exercised by the zinc and oxygen is inadequate to produce this movement in the whole chain of atoms, liquid and metallic; but as it is indifferent whether any two atoms are united with each other, or with any other atoms of the same kind, the chemical force easily causes them to exchange partners, as it were, when the whole are made to form a circuitous row in due contiguity.[71]

59. As we know that, during their union with oxygen, metals give out an enormous quantity of heat and electricity, it is reasonable to suppose that whenever an atom of oxygen and an atom of zinc jump into union with each other, a wave is induced in the ethereo-ponderable matter, and that this wave is sustained by the decompositions and recompositions, by means of which an atom of hydrogen is evolved at the negative plate, and probably enabled to assume the aeriform state. There must, at the same time, be a communication of wave polarity by contact of the negative plate with the connecting wire, by which the positive wave in the wire is induced. Although the inherent polarities of the atoms are not, agreeably to this view, the moving power in galvanism, yet they facilitate, and in some cases induce, the exercise of that power, by enabling it to act at a distance, when otherwise it might be inefficient.

60. This, I conceive, is shown in the effect of platina sponge, upon a mixture of the gaseous elements of water; also in Groves’s _gas_ battery, by means of which hydrogen and oxygen gas severally react with water in syphons, so as to cause each other to condense, without any communication beside that through the platina, and an electrolytic decomposition and recomposition extending from one of the aqueous surfaces in contact with one of the gases, to the other surface in contact with the other gas.

_Difference between Electro-ethereal and Ethereo-ponderable
Polarization._

61. There are two species of electro-polarity which come under the head of statical electricity. One of these Farraday illustrates by supposing three bodies, A, B, and C, in proximity, but not in contact, when A, being electrified, electrifies B, and B electrifies C by induction. This, Farraday calls an _action_ of the particles of the bodies concerned, whereas, by his own premises, it appears to me to be merely a superficial affection of the masses or of a circumambient ethereal matter. This species of polarization, to which the insulating power of air is necessary, affects the superficies of a body only, being displayed as well by a gilt globe of glass as a solid globe of metal. No sensible change appears to be produced in the ponderable conducting superficies by this inductive superficial electrification of masses; and of course no magnetism.

62. When a small image, of which the scalp has been abundantly furnished with long hair, is electrified, the hairy filaments extend themselves and move apart, as if actuated by a repulsive power: also, when iron filings are so managed as to obey the influence of the poles of a powerful magnet, (51,) they arrange themselves in a manner resembling that of the electrified hair. There is, moreover, this additional analogy, that there is an attraction between two portions of hair differently electrified, like that which arises between filings differently magnetized. Yet the properties of the electrified hair and magnetized filings are, in some respects, utterly dissimilar. A conducting communication between differently electrified portions of hair would entirely neutralize the respective electrical states; so that all the electrical phenomena displayed by them would cease. Yet such a communication made between the poles, exciting the filings, by any non-magnetic conductor, does not in the slightest degree lessen their polar affections and consequent power of reciprocal influence. Upon the electrified hair, the proximity or the contact of a steel magnet has no more effect than would result under like circumstances from any other metallic mass similarly employed; but by the approximation, and still more, the contact of such a magnet, the affection of the filings may be enhanced, lessened, or nullified, according to the mode of its employment. In the case of the hair the affection is superficial, and the requisite charging power must be in proportion to the extent of surface. In the case of the magnetized ferruginous particles, it is the mass which is affected, and, _cæteris paribus_, the more metal, the greater the capacity for magnetic power. In the instance of the electrified hair, as in every other of frictional excitement, the electrical power resides in imponderable ethereo-electric atmospheres which adhere superficially to the masses, being liable to be unequally distributed upon them in opposite states of polarity, consequent to a superficial polarization of the exciting or excited ponderable masses; but in the instance of bodies permanently magnetic, or those rendered transiently magnetic by galvanic influence, the ethereo-electric matter and the ponderable atoms are inferred to be in a state of combination, forming ethereo-ponderable atoms, so that both may become parties to the movements and affections of which the positive and negative waves consist.

63. Thus an explanation is afforded of the hitherto mysterious diversity of the powers of a gold-leaf electroscope and galvanoscopes, although both are to a miraculous degree sensitive—the latter to the most feeble galvanic discharge, the former to the slightest statical excitement; yet neither is in the most minute degree affected by the polarization which affects the other.

64. The charge which may exist in a coated pane affords another exemplification of statical or electro-ethereal polarity. In this case, according to Farraday, the particles of glass are thrown into a state of electro-polarity, and are, in fact, partially affected as if they belonged to a conductor; so that insulators and conductors differ only in the possession in a high degree by the one of a susceptibility of which the other is possessed to an extent barely perceptible. The facts seem to me only to show that either an insulator or conductor may be both affected by the same polarizing force, the transmission of which the one facilitates, the other prevents. I am under the impression that it is only by the disruptive process that electricity passes through glass; of course involving a fracture. It gets through a pane or jar, not by aid of the vitreous particles, but in despite of their opposing coherence. The glass in such cases is not liable to be fused, deflagrated, or dissipated, as conductors are. It is forced out of the way of the electrical waves, being incapable of becoming a party to them. Discharges will take place through a vacuity, rather than through the thinnest leaf of mica. But if, as Farraday has alleged, from within a glass flask hermetically sealed, an electrical charge has been found to escape, after a long time, it proves only that glass is not a perfect insulator, _not that perfect insulation and perfect conduction are different extremes of the same property_. On the contrary, the one is founded upon a constitution competent to the propagation within it of the electro-polarizing waves, with miraculous facility, while the other is founded either on an absolute incapacity, or comparatively an infinitely small ability to be the medium of their conveyance. The one extremely retards, the other excessively expedites, its passage through a space otherwise void.[72]

_Competency of a Wire to convey a Galvanic Discharge is as its sectional area, while statical discharges of frictional electricity, preferring the surface, are promoted by its extension. Yet in proportion as such discharges are heavy, the ability of a wire to convey them and its magnetic energy become more dependent on its sectional area, and less upon extent of surface._

65. Reference has been made to two modes of electrical conduction, in one of which the efficacy is as the surface; in the other, as the area of a section of the conductor. Although glass be substantially a non-conductor, the power of the surface of glass when moistened or gilt to discharge statical electricity is enormous. It has been generally considered that, as a protection against lightning, the same weight of metal employed as a pipe would be more efficacious than in the usual solid form of a lightning rod: yet this law does not hold good with respect to galvanic discharges, which are not expedited by a mere extension of conducting surface. Independently of the augmentation of conducting power, consequent to radiation and contact with the air, the cooling influence of which, according to Davy, promotes galvano-electric conduction, a metallic ribbon does not convey a galvanic discharge better than a wire of similar weight and length.[73]

66. Agreeably to the considerations above stated, the sectional area of a conductor remaining the same, in proportion as any _statical_ accumulation which it may discharge is greater, the effects are less superficial; and the ethereo-ponderable atoms are affected more analogously to those exposed to galvanic discharges. It is in this way that the discharge of a Leyden jar imparts magnetic polarization. Thus, on the one hand, the electro-ethereal matter being polarized and greatly condensed, combines with and communicates polarization, and consequently magnetism, to ethereo-ponderable bodies; while, on the other hand, these, when polarized by galvanic reaction, and thus rendered magnetic, communicate polarity to the electro-ether. Hence, statical electricity, when produced by galvanism, and magnetism, when produced by statical electricity, are secondary effects.

67. Where a wire is of such dimensions, in proportion to the charge, as to be heated, ignited, or dispersed by statical electricity, there seems to be a transitory concentration of the electric power, which transforms the nature of the reaction, and an internal wave of electro-ponderable polarization, similar to those of galvano-electricity, is the consequence.

68. As above observed, (31,) the current produced by the magneto-electric machine has all the attributes of the galvano-electric current; yet this is altogether a secondary effect of the changes of polarity in a keeper, acting upon a wire solely by dynamic induction. But if, by mere external influence, the machine above mentioned can produce within a circuit a current such as above described, is it unreasonable to suppose that the common machine, when it acts upon a circuit, may put into activity the matter existing therein, so as to produce waves of polarization, having the power of those usually ascribed to a galvano-electrical current?

69. It has been shown that both reason and the researches and suggestions of Farraday warrant the inference that ponderable atoms, in solids and liquids, may be considered as swimming in an enormous quantity of condensed imponderable matter, in which all the particles, whether ponderable or imponderable, are, in their natural state, held in a certain relative position due to the reciprocal attraction of their dissimilar poles. A galvano-electrified body differs from one in its ordinary state, in having the relative position of the poles of its ethereo-ponderable atoms so changed, that their inherent opposite polarities not being productive of reciprocal neutralization, a reaction with external bodies ensues.

70. In statical excitement the affection is superficial as respects the ponderable bodies concerned, while in dynamic excitement the polarities of the whole mass are deranged oppositely at opposite ends of the electrified mass; so that the oppositely disturbing impulses, proceeding from the poles of the disturbing apparatus, neutralize each other intermediately. Supposing the ponderable as well as the imponderable matter in a perfect conductor to be susceptible of the polar arrangement, of which an electrified state is thus represented to consist, non-conductors to be insusceptible of such polar derangement; imperfect conductors may have a constitution intermediate between metals and electrics.

71. When an electrical discharge is made through any space devoid of air or other matter, it must then find its way solely by the polarization of the rare imponderable matter existing therein; and consequently its corruscations should be proportionably more diffuse, which is actually found to be true; but when gaseous ethereo-ponderable atoms intervene, as in wire, they enable competent waves to exist within a narrower channel and to attain a greater intensity.

72. I consider all bodies as insulators which cause discharges through them to be more difficult than through a vacuum, and which, by their interposition within a circuit, can prevent that propagation of the oppositely polarizing undulations which would otherwise ensue. This furnishes a good mean of discrimination between insulators and conductors, the criterion being that a discharge ensues more readily as there is more of the one and less of the other in the way: that the one leads the waves where they would not go, the other impedes their going where they would proceed. Both in the case of disruptive discharge through air, producing a spark, or of a deflagrating discharge through wire, causing its explosion, there is a dispersion of intervening ponderable particles; and yet there is this manifest discordancy, that in one case the undulatory process of transfer is assisted, in the other resisted. The waves follow the metallic filament with intense attraction, while they strive to get out of the way of those formed by the aeriform matter, as if repelled. Hence the term disruptive, from _dirumpo_, to break through, was happily employed by Farraday to designate spark discharges.

73. The zigzag form of the disruptive spark shows that there is a tendency in the aeriform particles to turn the waves out of that straight course, which, if unresisted or facilitated, they would naturally pursue. On the one hand, the aerial filaments being unsuitable for the conveyance of the electric waves, these are forced by them out of the normal path—first in one direction, then in another; while, on the other hand, the finest metallic filament furnishes a channel for the electric waves, so favourable that this channel is pursued, although the consequent polarization of the conducting particles be so intense as to make them fly asunder with explosive violence. Even when a bell-wire has been dissipated by lightning, it has been found to facilitate and determine the path of the discharge.

74. The various forms of the electric spark, resulting from varying the gas through which it may be made to pass, agreeably to the researches of Farraday, is explained by the supposition that the peculiarities of the spark is partially the consequence of the polarizability of the gaseous atoms through which the discharge is made, and varies, accordingly, in its appearance.

_Difference between Frictional Electricity and Galvanic does not depend on the one being superior as to Quantity, the other as to Intensity; but on the different Degrees in which the Ethereo-ponderable Atoms of the Bodies affected are deranged from their natural state of Neutralized Polarity._

75. I infer that all magneto-polar charges are attended by an affection of ponderable particles; and that the reason why the most intense statical charge does not affect a galvanometer is, that it is only when appositely excited bodies are neutralized by the interposition of a conductor as during a discharge, that ethereo-ponderable particles are sufficiently polarized to enable them to act upon others in their vicinity, so as to produce a polar affection the opposite of their own. (54.58.) In this way dynamic induction is consistently explained, by supposing that the waves of polarization, in passing along one conductor, produce, _pari passu_, the opposite polarization in the proximate part of any neighbouring conductor suitably constituted, situated and arranged to allow it to form a part of a circuit.

76. It is only during the state of the incessant generation and destruction of what has been called the two electricities, that the circuit, which is the channel for the passage of the polarizing waves, is endowed with electro-magnetic powers. It was, no doubt, in obedience to a perception of this fact, that Oersted ascribed the magnetism of a galvanized wire to a conflict of the electricities. Undoubtedly, that state of a conductor in which, by being a part of an electrical circuit, it becomes enabled to display electro-magnetic powers, is so far a conflict of the two electricities, as the affections of matter, which are denominated electrical, consist of two opposite polar forces, proceeding, agreeably to the language of Farraday, in opposite directions from each side of the source, and conflicting with each other, so as to be productive of reciprocal annihilation.

77. That a corpuscular change in conductors is concomitant with their subjection to, or emancipation from, a galvanic current, is proved by an experiment of Henry’s, which he afforded me an opportunity on one occasion of witnessing. I allude to the fact that sound is produced whenever the circuit is suddenly made or suddenly ruptured. By I. P. Marrian it has been observed that a similar result takes place during the magnetization or demagnetization of iron rods, by the alternate establishment or arrestation of galvanic discharges through wires coiled about them so as to convert each into an electro-magnet. Mr. Marrian represents the sound as resembling that produced by striking a rod upon one of its ends.[74][75] Sounds from this source were observed by Dr. Page in 1838. See Silliman’s Journal for that year, vol. xxxiii.

78. Thus it appears that there is an analogy between the state of matter which involves permanent magnetism, and that which constitutes a galvanic current, so far as this, that either by one or the other, during either its access or cessation, an affection of the ponderable particles concerned ensues, sufficient to produce sound.

79. Simultaneously with the production of sounds, as above stated, by the opening or closing of the galvanic circuit through a metallic rod or the coils of an electro-magnet, secondary waves are induced, called secondary currents. It seems reasonable to ascribe these waves to the same shifting of the poles, which produces the sonorific undulations.[76]

80. Within the bodies of animals and vegetables, the electro-ether may be supposed to exist as an atmosphere surrounding the ethereo-ponderable atoms of which their organs are constituted, so as to occupy all the space which is not replete with such atoms. Hence a discharge of frictional electricity may indirectly polarize the whole animal frame, by producing ethereo-ponderable polarization in the constituent atoms of the fibres of the nerves and muscles. Probably this polarization is produced more immediately in the ponderable solids by a discharge from a voltaic series or a wire subjected to electro-or magneto-dynamic induction. In the latter instances the shock is reiterated so rapidly as to appear more enduring, while in the former it is more startling and producible at an infinitely greater distance.

81. Agreeably to Farraday’s researches, (1485 to 1543,) there is reason to suppose that in frictional spark discharges, the consequent shock, light, and other peculiarities are in part owing to waves of ethereo-ponderable polarization, indirectly produced in the intervening gaseous matter.

_Of Ethereo-ponderable Deflagration._

82. It is well known that between two pieces of charcoal severally attached, one to the negative, the other to the positive, pole of a numerous and well-excited voltaic series, an arch of flame may be produced by moving them apart after contact. This phenomenon evidently depends upon the volatilization of the ponderable matter concerned; since it cannot be produced before the carbon has been volatilized by contact, nor by any body besides charcoal, this being the only conductor which is sufficiently infusible, and yet duly volatilizable. Metals, similarly treated, fuse at the point of contact and cohere. On separation, after touching, a single spark ensues, which, without repetition of contact, cannot be reproduced. Hence, it may be inferred that the carbonaceous vapour is indispensable to this process, as a medium for the ethereo-ponderable polarizing waves, being soon consumed by the surrounding atmospheric oxygen. The excrescence upon the negative charcoal, observed by Silliman, together with the opposite appearance on the positive charcoal, may be owing to the lesser affinity for oxygen on the negative side.[78]

83. There may be some resemblance imagined between this luminous discharge between the poles, and that which has already been designated as disruptive; but this flaming arch discharge does not break through the air; it only usurps its place gradually, and then sustains this usurpation. It differs from the other as to its cause, so far as galvanic reaction differs from friction; moreover, it requires a volatilizable, as well as a polarizable ponderable conducting substance to enable its appropriate undulations to meet at a mean distance from the solid polar terminations whence they respectively proceed.

84. The most appropriate designation of the phenomenon under consideration is that of ethereo-ponderable undulatory deflagration. Under this head we may not only place the flaming arch, but likewise the active ignition and dissipation of fine wire or leaf metal, or when attached to one pole, and made barely to touch the other.

85. In one of Farraday’s experiments, a circuit was completed by subjecting platina points, severally proceeding from the poles of a voltaic series, while very near to each other, to the flame of a spirit lamp. This was ascribed by him to the rarefaction of the air, but ought, as I think, to be attributed to the polarizable ethereo-ponderable matter of the flame, performing the same office as the volatilized carbon in the flaming arch, between charcoal points, to which reference has been made.

_Summary._

From the facts and reasoning which have been above stated, it is presumed that the following deductions may be considered as highly probable, if not altogether susceptible of demonstration:

The theories of Franklin, Dufay, and Ampere are irreconcilable with the premises on which they are founded, and with facts on all sides admitted.

A charge of frictional electricity, or that species of electric excitement which is produced by friction, is not due to any accumulation, nor to any deficiency either of one or of two fluids, but to the opposite polarities induced in imponderable ethereal matter existing throughout space however otherwise void, and likewise condensed more or less within ponderable bodies, so as to enter into combination with their particles, forming atoms which may be designated as ethereo-ponderable.

Frictional charges of electricity seek the surfaces of bodies to which they may be imparted, without sensibly affecting the ethereo-ponderable matter of which they consist.

When surfaces thus oppositely charged, or, in other words, having about them oppositely polarized ethereal atmospheres, are made to communicate, no current takes place, nor any transfer of the polarized matter: yet any conductor, touching both atmospheres, furnishes a channel through which the opposite polarities are reciprocally neutralized by being communicated wave-like to an intermediate point.

Galvano-electric discharges are likewise effected by waves of opposite polarization, without any flow of matter meriting to be called a current.

But such waves are not propagated superficially through the purely ethereal medium; they occur in masses formed both of the ethereal and ponderable matter. If the generation of frictional electricity, sufficient to influence the gold-leaf electrometer, indicate that there are some purely ethereal waves caused by the galvano-electric reaction, such waves arise from the inductive influence of those created in the ethereo-ponderable matter.

When the intensity of a frictional discharge is increased beyond a certain point, the wire remaining the same, its powers become enfeebled or destroyed by ignition, and ultimately deflagration: if the diameter of the wire be increased, the surface, proportionally augmented, enables more of the ethereal waves to pass superficially, producing proportionally less ethereo-ponderable undulation.

Magnetism, when stationary, as in magnetic needles and other permanent magnets, appears to be owing to an enduring polarization of the ethereo-ponderable atoms, like that transiently produced by a galvanic discharge.

The magnetism transiently exhibited by a galvanized wire, is due to oppositely polarizing impulses, severally proceeding wave-like to an intermediate part of the circuit where reciprocal neutralization ensues.

When magnetism is produced by a frictional discharge operating upon a conducting wire, it must be deemed a secondary effect, arising from the polarizing influence of the ethereal waves upon the ethereo-ponderable atoms of the wire.

Such waves pass superficially in preference; but when the wire is comparatively small, the reaction between the waves and the ethereo-ponderable atoms becomes sufficiently powerful to polarize them, and thus render them competent, for an extremely minute period of time, to produce all the affections of a galvano-electric current, whether of ignition, of electrolysis, or magnetization. Thus, as the ethereo-ponderable waves produce such as are purely ethereal, so purely ethereal waves may produce such as are ethereo-ponderable.

The polarization of hair upon electrified scalps is supposed to be due to a superficial association with the surrounding polarized ethereal atoms, while that of iron filings, by a magnet or galvanized wire, is conceived to arise from the influence of polarized ethereo-ponderable atoms, consisting of ethereal and ponderable matter in a state of combination.

Farradian discharges are as truly the effects of ethereo-ponderable polarization as those from an electrified conductor, or coated surfaces of glass are due to static ethereal polarization, (39, 40, 41.)[79]

THE END.

PRINTED AND STEREOTYPED
BY HOLMAN & GRAY

INVOCATION OF SPIRITS.[80]

Spirits on high, or far or near,
Who happen our humble chanting to hear,
Our circle with your presence bless;
Our souls with pious emotions impress.
Come, spirits, come! our sand runs fast;
Death waits for his due, and life may be past.

In mercy teach us truth to know,
And, passing death’s portal, whither we go;
Of your abodes the wonders teach,
And how to deserve that haven to reach.
Come, spirits, come! our sand runs fast;
Death’s portal may yawn, and life may be past.

Say how far in the azure sky
The magical homes of immortals lie:[81]
Tell us how angels draw their breath—
That breathing beyond the power of death.[82]
Say, spirits, say I our sand runs fast;
Death’s warrant may come, and life may be past.

The bliss portray which the good enjoy,
The pain and remorse which the bad annoy,
The sun which sheds on earth no rays,
Yet glorious light in heaven displays![83]
Haste and portray’ our sand runs fast;
Death’s mandate may come, and life may be past.

_Query to the High Spirits._

Throughout the azure realms of space
Do blessed spirits cheerly fly
To orbs too far for thoughts to reach,
Or Ross’ reflector to descry?
Or bide they near their natal orb,
To mingle with their mundane friends,
Striving their minds to impress with truth
Which to their future welfare tends?

_Reply of the Spirits._

‘Tis not to orbs vastly remote
That earth-born spirits wend their flight;
About their own planet to rove
Will ever be their great delight.
Attached by love in lieu of weight,
Throughout its vast orbit they move,
Ever striving with lively zeal
The fate of mortals to improve.[84]

PORTUGUESE HYMN SPIRITUALIZED.

Adeste fideles læti triumphantes,
Venite, venite in circulum
Ortam videte cœli cognoscentiam.
Venite adoremus, venite adoremus,
Venite adoremus Dominum.

Ecce in nostro tempore quæ nata
Veritati tibi sit gloria
Patris æterni verbum clarefactum.
Venite adoremus, venite adoremus,
Venite adoremus Dominum.

Valde exultat chorus angelorum
Resonant aulæ celestium
Gloria in excelsis Deo.
Venite adoremus, venite adoremus,
Venite adoremus Dominum.

_Translation of Portuguese Hymn, as altered._

Come hither, ye faithful, joyfully triumphing;
Come, come into a circle;
Behold, a knowledge of heaven is born to us.
Come let us adore, come let us adore our God.

O truth, to you who art just born to us,
Let there be glory rendered,
The word of God being made evident.
Come let us adore, &c.

Greatly does the chorus of angels exult,
Causing the temples of heaven to resound:
Glory be to God on high.
Come let us adore, &c.

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] See subsequent investigation on Media; also Plate IV. and description.

[2] These disks cost at the foundry about 37½ cents a piece. One may be used as a pattern by which to cast others.

[3] There is also this difference, that in Fig. 2 the board is supported by only three wheels, so as to have one in front under the hands of the medium, by which sufficient pressure is secured to make its rotation certain. But as the position thus given does not fall into the plane of the pulley at the back of the disk, the wheel in question is supported upon an axle which is secured in staples or holes, and carries a pulley just at the position where it is coincident with the plane aforesaid. The wheel is visible in front.

[4] _Vis inertiæ_, or force of inertness, is the force by which a body, when at rest, resists being put into motion, or, when in motion, resists arrestation. The force, in this latter case, is called momentum, being directly as the weight multiplied by the velocity. Thus, two pounds, moving at the rate of one foot per second, exercise exactly the same momentum as one pound moving at the rate of two feet per second.

The force of a spring, or of explosive compounds, cannot be called momentum; neither velocity nor weight enter into its constitution; though, when transferred to a projectile, it produces momentum proportional to the force with which it acts, the weight moved, and velocity imparted.

Muscular force does not come within the definition of momentum, although it produces this property in a hammer, proportionably to its weight and the resulting velocity. Nor is the force of gravity momentum, though momentum be generated by it in falling bodies.

[5] It is suggested that these words may be misapprehended. I use them in the sense given by Johnson: “_Sight of any thing, commonly mental view_.”

I understand that evidence to be intuitive which is obtained by the simultaneous action of the mind and the sight, and, of course, of any other of the senses. Intuitive is derived from the Latin word _intuo_, to look upon. “_Intuere cœlum_,” according to Cicero, means to look at the sky.

[6] I have since been assured by my spirit friends, that there was no deception on the part of the medium here alluded to. It has since been alleged by them that it was my own father who made the raps on the small table above mentioned, when I sat at it between the two media. It was my spirit friend, William Blodget, who rapped when the flute, tubes, and rod were held against the door, or when the rapping appeared to be made against the partition between the parlours.

[7] Excepting the difference of the table represented in length, the apparatus here described does not differ from that represented in Plate 2, which is accompanied by a description.

[8] It may be expedient to state that the disk was counterpoised by a weight at the smaller end of the board. This weight was suspended from a hook at one end of a rod, which was so fastened by staples, as to have the distance of the hook from the fulcrum adjusted so as to make the weight counterpoise the disk exactly.

This experiment may be understood by looking at Plate 3. The board employed is there represented, associated with a wire-gauze cage and spring balance. Let all these be removed in the mind’s eye. Suppose the large disk represented in the Plate I to be affixed with its axle to the board, near where the hook is represented as attached to the balance. Suppose a counter-weight at the other end of the board to balance the disk, so as to keep the board level when left to itself. Now, the cord and weights being applied, as in the experiment with table, (154,) on the medium placing her hands on the small end, the results above described ensued.

[9] Though gifted with vision, they are, nevertheless, blind.

[10] My father was a member of the convention by which the original constitution of the State of Pennsylvania was made. Subsequently, he served in the legislature, and held the office of Speaker of the Senate. His name must be associated with many of the laws of his time. During leisure he used to amuse himself with the Latin poets and historians, as well as with those of Great Britain and of France. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania have lately published a journal which he wrote of a tour, made in 1775, through New York to Canada and Niagara Falls.

[11] Is understood in the spheres as synonymous with gradual.

[12] I had remarked to the company during the evening that I felt a spirit touching my forehead. I had often before that time felt a gentle touch upon my forehead or brow, as if touched by a feather, but I did not know its cause, and this was the first intimation.

[13] _Apotheosis_ from _apo_, among, and _theos_, god, having been used to signify translation to a place among gods, might not _apo-angelosis_ be used to signify translation to a place among angels, from _apo_, among, and _angelos_, an angel?

[14]

“_Praise undeserved is satire in disguise._”

This being manifestly true, it follows that whatever applause may be bestowed upon an author by his spiritual advisers, as he may consider them, will be so inverted in the mind’s eye of an unbeliever as to have all the efficacy of satire. Under these circumstances I should be terribly satirized were I here to give the whole of a communication made by this benevolent philanthropic spirit, of which the following is a part. Were I to give his sentiments in full, it would be rather from the motive of showing how vivacious is the interest taken in the progress of Spiritualism by certain worthies of the spirit world, and to give another exemplification of the ardour of the spirit mind after emerging from its mundane tenement. But the main motive for publishing so much of the communication in question as subjoined, is the confirmation thus afforded of the account previously given by my angel sister, of the attendance of high spirits upon my lectures at Boston.

This account was also confirmed by independent communications from two other sources. Opecancanough, the Indian chief, was present, as he gave me to understand, and without knowing the names, described some of the parties who were present.

_Part of a Letter from Mrs. Gourlay to the Author._

PHILADELPHIA, November 14, 1854.

“_My Dear Sir_: Having finished reading your letter, I felt a very powerful influence indicating the presence of spirits. Accordingly, seating myself at the instrument, [Plate I. Fig. 2,] the following communication was rapidly given:

“‘My dear sister, say to our beloved friend and brother that I was present at his lectures in Boston, and was much pleased to hear him speak so nobly and fearlessly in the holy cause of _Spiritualism_. * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“‘There was a great assemblage of elevated spirits convened at our friend’s lectures in Boston. Among those whom I particularly recognised were B. Franklin, W. E. Channing, J. Q. Adams, H. Kirk White, Byron, Burns, Moore, Dr. Physick, Dr. Rush, Dr. Chalmers, and a host of others. His chief supporters were his father and mother, his loving sister Martha and brother Charles, and his friend Blodgett, Walter Gourlay, and myself.

W. W.’

“My dear friend: The above is the communication which I received, _verbatim_, and which you will please accept for what it is worth. I believe it came from the source whence it purports to have emanated. I questioned W. W. regarding the nature of the marks of approbation. His reply was, ‘We rapped several times.’

[15] First spiritual sphere.