The World's Greatest Books - Volume 15 Part 6

The earth is a spheroidal body consisting of paramagnetic and diamagnetic substances irregularly disposed and intermingled; but for the present the whole may be considered a mighty compound magnet. The magnetic force of this great magnet is known to us only on the surface of the earth and water of our planet, and the variations in the magnetic lines of force which pa.s.s in or across this surface can be measured by their action on small standard magnets; but these variations are limited in their information, and do not tell us whether the cause is in the air above or the earth beneath.

The lines of force issue from the earth in the northern and southern parts and coalesce with each other over the equatorial, as would be the case in a globe having one or two short magnets adjusted in relation to its axis, and it is probable that the lines of force in their circuitous course may extend through s.p.a.ce to tens of thousands of miles. The lines proceed through s.p.a.ce with a certain degree of facility, but there may be variations in s.p.a.ce, _e.g._, variations in its temperature which affect its power of transmitting the magnetic influence.

Between the earth and s.p.a.ce, however, is interposed the atmosphere, and at the bottom of the atmosphere we live. The atmosphere consists of four volumes of nitrogen and one of oxygen uniformly mixed and acting magnetically as a single medium. The _nitrogen_ of the air is, as regards the magnetic force, neither paramagnetic nor diamagnetic, whether dense or rare, or at high or low temperatures.

The _oxygen_ of the air, on the other hand, is highly paramagnetic, being, bulk for bulk, equivalent to a solution of protosulphate of iron, containing of the crystallised salt seventeen times the weight of the oxygen. It becomes less paramagnetic, volume for volume, as it is rarefied, and apparently in the simple proportion of its rarefaction, the temperature remaining the same. When its temperature is raised--the expansion consequent thereon being permitted--it loses very greatly its paramagnetic force, and there is sufficient reason to conclude that when its temperature is lowered its paramagnetic condition is exalted. These characters oxygen preserves even when mingled with the nitrogen in the air.

Hence the atmosphere is a highly magnetic medium, and this medium is changed in its magnetic relations by every change in its density and temperature, and must affect both the intensity and direction of the magnetic force emanating from the earth, and may account for the variations which we find in terrestrial magnetic power.

We may expect as the sun leaves us on the west some magnetic effect correspondent to that of the approach of a body of cold air from the east. Again, the innumerable circ.u.mstances that break up more or less any average arrangement of the air temperatures may be expected to give not merely differences in the regularity, direction, and degree of magnetic variation, but, because of vicinity, differences so large as to be many times greater than the mean difference for a given short period, and they may also cause irregularities in the times of their occurrence.

Yet again, the atmosphere diminishes in density upwards, and this diminution will affect the transmission of the electric force.

The result of the _annual variation_ that may be expected from the magnetic const.i.tution and condition of the atmosphere seems to me to be of the following kind.

Since the axis of the earth's rotation is inclined 23 28' to the plane of the ecliptic, the two hemispheres will become alternately warmer and cooler than each other. The air of the cooled hemisphere will conduct magnetic influence more freely than if in the mean state, and the lines of force pa.s.sing through it will increase in amount, whilst in the other hemisphere the warmed air will conduct with less readiness than before, and the intensity will diminish. In addition to this effect of temperature, there ought to be another due to the increase of the ponderable portion of the air in the cooled hemisphere, consequent on its contraction and the coincident expansion of the air in the warmer half, both of which circ.u.mstances tend to increase the variation in power of the two hemispheres from the normal state. Then, as the earth rolls on its annual journey, that which was at one time the cooler becomes the warmer hemisphere, and in its turn sinks as far below the average magnetic intensity as it before had stood above it, while the other hemisphere changes its magnetic condition from less to more intense.

_II.--Electro-Chemical Action_

The theory of definite electrolytical or electro-chemical action appears to me to touch immediately upon the absolute quant.i.ty of electricity belonging to different bodies. As soon as we perceive that chemical powers are definite for each body, and that the electricity which we can loosen from each body has definite chemical action which can be measured, we seem to have found the link which connects the proportion of that we have evolved to the proportion belonging to the particles in their natural state.

Now, it is wonderful to observe how small a quant.i.ty of a compound body is decomposed by a certain quant.i.ty of electricity. One grain of water, for instance, acidulated to facilitate conduction, will require an electric current to be continued for three minutes and three-quarters to effect its decomposition, and the current must be powerful enough to keep a platina wire 1/104 inch in thickness red hot in the air during the whole time, and to produce a very brilliant and constant star of light if interrupted anywhere by charcoal points. It will not be too much to say that this necessary quant.i.ty of electricity is equal to a very powerful flash of lightning; and yet when it has performed its full work of electrolysis, it has separated the elements of only a single grain of water.

On the other hand, the relation between the conduction of the electricity and the decomposition of the water is so close that one cannot take place without the other. If the water be altered only in that degree which consists in its having the solid instead of the fluid state, the conduction is stopped and the decomposition is stopped with it. Whether the conduction be considered as depending upon the decomposition or not, still the relation of the two functions is equally intimate.

Considering this close and twofold relation--namely, that without decomposition transmission of electricity does not occur, and that for a given definite quant.i.ty of electricity pa.s.sed an equally definite and constant quant.i.ty of water or other matter is decomposed; considering also that the agent, which is electricity, is simply employed in overcoming electrical powers in the body subjected to its action, it seems a probable and almost a natural consequence that the quant.i.ty which pa.s.ses is the equivalent of that of the particles separated; _i.e._, that if the electrical power which holds the elements of a grain of water in combination, or which makes a grain of oxygen and hydrogen in the right proportions unite into water when they are made to combine, could be thrown into a current, it would exactly equal the current required for the separation of that grain of water into its elements again; in other words, that the electricity which decomposes and that which is evolved by the decomposition of a certain quant.i.ty of matter are alike.

This view of the subject gives an almost overwhelming idea of the extraordinary quant.i.ty or degree of electric power which naturally belongs to the particles of matter, and the idea may be ill.u.s.trated by reference to the voltaic pile.

The source of the electricity in the voltaic instrument is due almost entirely to chemical action. Substances interposed between its metals are all electrolytes, and the current cannot be transmitted without their decomposition. If, now, a voltaic trough have its extremities connected by a body capable of being decomposed, such as water, we shall have a continuous current through the apparatus, and we may regard the part where the acid is acting on the plates and the part where the current is acting upon the water as the reciprocals of each other. In both parts we have the two conditions, _inseparable in such bodies as these_: the pa.s.sing of a current, and decomposition. In the one case we have decomposition a.s.sociated with a current; in the other, a current followed by decomposition.

Let us apply this in support of my surmise respecting the enormous electric power of each particle or atom of matter.

Two wires, one of platina, and one of zinc, each one-eighteenth of an inch in diameter, placed five-sixteenths of an inch apart, and immersed to the depth of five-eighths of an inch in acid, consisting of one drop of oil of vitriol and four ounces of distilled water at a temperature of about 60 Fahrenheit, and connected at the other ends by a copper wire eighteen feet long, and one-eighteenth of an inch in thickness, yielded as much electricity in little more than three seconds of time as a Leyden battery charged by thirty turns of a very large and powerful plate electric machine in full action. This quant.i.ty, although sufficient if pa.s.sed at once through the head of a rat or cat to have killed it, as by a flash of lightning, was evolved by the mutual action of so small a portion of the zinc wire and water in contact with it that the loss of weight by either would be inappreciable; and as to the water which could be decomposed by that current, it must have been insensible in quant.i.ty, for no trace of hydrogen appeared upon the surface of the platina during these three seconds. It would appear that 800,000 such charges of the Leyden battery would be necessary to decompose a single grain of water; or, if I am right, to equal the quant.i.ty of electricity which is naturally a.s.sociated with the elements of that grain of water, endowing them with their mutual chemical affinity.

This theory of the definite evolution and the equivalent definite action of electricity beautifully harmonises the a.s.sociated theories of definite proportions and electro-chemical affinity.

According to it, the equivalent weights of bodies are simply those quant.i.ties of them which contain equal quant.i.ties of electricity, or have naturally equal electric powers, it being the electricity which _determines_ the equivalent number, _because_ it determines the combining force. Or, if we adopt the atomic theory or phraseology, then the atoms of bodies which are equivalent to each other in their ordinary chemical action have equal quant.i.ties of electricity naturally a.s.sociated with them. I cannot refrain from recalling here the beautiful idea put forth, I believe, by Berzelius in his development of his views of the electro-chemical theory of affinity, that the heat and light evolved during cases of powerful combination are the consequence of the electric discharge which is at the moment taking place. The idea is in perfect accordance with the view I have taken of the quant.i.ty of electricity a.s.sociated with the particles of matter.

The definite production of electricity in a.s.sociation with its definite action proves, I think, that the current of electricity in the voltaic pile is sustained by chemical decomposition, or, rather, by chemical action, and not by contact only. But here, as elsewhere, I beg to reserve my opinion as to the real action of contact.

Admitting, however, that chemical action is the source of electricity, what an infinitely small fraction of that which is active do we obtain and employ in our voltaic batteries! Zinc and platina wires one-eighteenth of an inch in diameter and about half an inch long, dipped into dilute sulphuric acid, so weak that it is not sensibly sour to the tongue, or scarcely sensitive to our most delicate test papers, will evolve more electricity in one-twentieth of a minute than any man would willingly allow to pa.s.s through his body at once.

The chemical energy represented by the satisfaction of the chemical affinities of a grain of water and four grains of zinc can evolve electricity equal in quant.i.ty to that of a powerful thunderstorm. Nor is it merely true that the quant.i.ty is active; it can be directed--made to perform its full equivalent duty. Is there not, then, great reason to believe that, by a closer investigation of the development and action of this subtile agent, we shall be able to increase the power of our batteries, or to invent new instruments which shall a thousandfold surpa.s.s in energy those we at present possess?

_III.--The Gymnotus, or Electric Eel_

Wonderful as are the laws and phenomena of electricity when made evident to us in inorganic or dead matter, their interest can bear scarcely any comparison with that which attaches to the same force when connected with the nervous system and with life.

The existence of animals able to give the same concussion to the living system as the electrical machine, the voltaic battery, and the thunderstorm being made known to us by various naturalists, it became important to identify their electricity with the electricity produced by man from dead matter. In the case of the _Torpedo_ [a fish belonging to the family of Electric Rings] this ident.i.ty has been fully proved, but in the case of the _Gymnotus_ the proof has not been quite complete, and I thought it well to obtain a specimen of the latter fish.

A gymnotus being obtained, I conducted a series of experiments. Besides the hands two kinds of collectors of electricity were used--one with a copper disc for contact with the fish, and the other with a plate of copper bent into saddle shape, so that it might enclose a certain extent of the back and sides of the fish. These conductors, being put over the fish, collected power sufficient to produce many electric effects.

SHOCK. The shock was very powerful when the hands were placed one near the head and the other near the tail, and the nearer the hands were together, within certain limits, the less powerful was the shock. The disc conductors conveyed the shock very well when the hands were wetted.

GALVANOMETER. A galvanometer was readily affected by using the saddle conductors, applied to the anterior and posterior parts of the gymnotus.

A powerful discharge of the fish caused a deflection of thirty or forty degrees. The deflection was constantly in a given direction, the electric current being always from the anterior part of the animal through the galvanometer wire to the posterior parts. The former were, therefore, for the time externally positive and the latter negative.

MAKING A MAGNET. When a little helix containing twenty-two feet of silked wire wound on a quill was put into a circuit, and an annealed steel needle placed in the helix, the needle became a magnet; and the direction of its polarity in every cast indicated a current from the anterior to the posterior parts of the gymnotus.

CHEMICAL DECOMPOSITION. Polar decomposition of a solution of iodide of pota.s.sium was easily obtained.

EVOLUTION OF HEAT. Using a Harris' thermo-electrometer, we thought we were able, in one instance, to observe a feeble elevation of temperature.

SPARK. By suitable apparatus a spark was obtained four times.

Such were the general electric phenomena obtained from the gymnotus, and on several occasions many of the phenomena were obtained together. Thus, a magnet was made, a galvanometer deflected, and, perhaps, a wire heated by one single discharge of the electric force of the animal. When the shock is strong, it is like that of a large Leyden battery charged to a low degree, or that of a good voltaic battery of, perhaps, one hundred or more pairs of plates, of which the circuit is completed for a moment only.

I endeavoured by experiment to form some idea of the quant.i.ty of electricity, and came to the conclusion that a single medium discharge of the fish is at least equal to the electricity of a Leyden battery of fifteen jars, containing 3,500 square inches of gla.s.s coated on both sides, charged to its highest degree. This conclusion is in perfect accordance with the degree of deflection which the discharge can produce in a galvanometer needle, and also with the amount of chemical decomposition produced in the electrolysing experiments.

The gymnotus frequently gives a double and even a triple shock, with scarcely a sensible interval between each discharge.

As at the moment of shock the anterior parts are positive and the posterior negative, it may be concluded that there is a current from the former to the latter through every part of the water which surrounds the animal, to a considerable distance from its body. The shock which is felt, therefore, when the hands are in the most favourable position is the effect of a very small portion only of the electricity which the animal discharges at the moment, by far the largest portion pa.s.sing through the surrounding water.

This enormous external current must be accompanied by some effect within the fish _equivalent_ to a current, the direction of which is from the tail towards the head, and equal to the sum of _all these external_ forces. Whether the process of evolving or exciting the electricity within the fish includes the production of the internal current, which is not necessarily so quick and momentary as the external one, we cannot at present say; but at the time of the shock the animal does not apparently feel the electric sensation which he causes in those around him.

The gymnotus can stun and kill fish which are in very various relations to its own body. The extent of surface which the fish that is about to be struck offers to the water conducting the electricity increases the effect of the shock, and the larger the fish, accordingly, the greater must be the shock to which it will be subjected.

The Chemical History of a Candle

"The Chemical History of a Candle" was the most famous course in the long and remarkable series of Christmas lectures, "adapted to a juvenile auditory," at the Royal Inst.i.tution, and remains a rarely-approached model of what such lectures should be. They were ill.u.s.trated by experiments and specimens, but did not depend upon these for coherence and interest. They were delivered in 1860-61, and have just been translated, though all but half-a-century old, into German.

_I.--Candles and their Flames_

There is not a law under which any part of this universe is governed that does not come into play in the phenomena of the chemical history of a candle. There is no better door by which you can enter into the study of natural philosophy than by considering the physical phenomena of a candle.

And now, my boys and girls, I must first tell you of what candles are made. Some are great curiosities. I have here some bits of timber, branches of trees particularly famous for their burning. And here you see a piece of that very curious substance taken out of some of the bogs in Ireland, called _candle-wood_--a hard, strong, excellent wood, evidently fitted for good work as a resister of force, and yet withal burning so well that, where it is found, they make splinters of it, and torches, since it burns like a candle, and gives a very good light indeed. And in this wood we have one of the most beautiful ill.u.s.trations of the general nature of a candle that I can possibly give. The fuel provided, the means of bringing that fuel to the place of chemical action, the regular and gradual supply of air to that place of action--heat and light all produced by a little piece of wood of this kind, forming, in fact, a natural candle.

But we must speak of candles as they are in commerce. Here are a couple of candles commonly called dips. They are made of lengths of cotton cut off, hung up by a loop, dipped into melted tallow, taken out again and cooled; then re-dipped until there is an acc.u.mulation of tallow round the cotton. However, a candle, you know, is not now a greasy thing like an ordinary tallow candle, but a clean thing; and you may almost sc.r.a.pe off and pulverise the drops which fall from it without soiling anything.

The candle I have in my hand is a stearine candle, made of stearine from tallow. Then here is a sperm candle, which comes from the purified oil of the spermaceti whale. Here, also, are yellow beeswax and refined beeswax from which candles are made. Here, too, is that curious substance called paraffin, and some paraffin candles made of paraffin obtained from the bogs of Ireland. I have here also a substance brought from j.a.pan, a sort of wax which a kind friend has sent me, and which forms a new material for the manufacture of candles.

Now, as to the light of the candle. We will light one or two, and set them at work in the performance of their proper function. You observe a candle is a very different thing from a lamp. With a lamp you take a little oil, fill your vessel, put in a little moss, or some cotton prepared by artificial means, and then light the top of the wick. When the flame runs down the cotton to the oil, it gets stopped, but it goes on burning in the part above. Now, I have no doubt you will ask, how is it that the oil, which will not burn of itself, gets up to the top of the cotton, where it will burn? We shall presently examine that; but there is a much more wonderful thing about the burning of a candle than this. You have here a solid substance with no vessel to contain it; and how is it that this solid substance can get up to the place where the flame is? Or, when it is made a fluid, then how is it that it keeps together? This is a wonderful thing about a candle.