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Show 6S Additional Notes. ot1 1 er, as wh en the copper sheathinOb ' o.f ships was h·e ld obn bbly iron nai·1 s·. A n d hence another oTeat operatiOn of nature 1s pro a y pro- b 1 f 1 duced; I mean the restoration of oxygen to the atmosp 1ere rom _t 1e surface ~f the earth in dewy mornings, as well as from .the persptration of vegetable leaves; which atmospheric oxygen IS hourly . destructible by the respiration of animals and plants, by combustiOn, and by other oxydations. . . . . 6. The combination of the electnc ethers with metalhc ~odies before mentioned appears from the. Galvanic pile; since, accordmg to the experiments of Mr. Davy, when an ~cid is mix~d with the water placed between the alternate pairs of silver and _zmc plates, a much oTeater electric shock is produced by the same p1Le; and an anony~ 1ous writer in the Phil. 1\tlagaz. No. 36, for May 180"1, asserts, that when the intervening cloths or papers are moistened with pure alcali, as a solution of pure ammonia, the effect is greater than by any other material. It must here be observed, that both the acid and the akaline solution, or common salt and water, and even water alone, in these experiments much erodes the plates of zinc, and somewhat tarnishes those of silver. Whence it would appear, that as by the repeated explosions of the two electric ethers in the conducting water, both oxygen and hydrogen are liberated; the oxygen erodes the zinc plates, and thus increases the Galvanic shock by liberating their combined electric ethers : and that this erosion is much increased by a mixture either of acid or of volatile alcali with the water. Further experiments are wanting on this subject to show whether metallic bodies emit either or both of the electric ethers at the time of their solution or erosion in acids or in alcalies. X. Of the tzvr; Magnetic_ .Ethers. 1. Magnetism coincides w1th electricity in so many important points, that the existence of two magnetic ethers, as well as of two electric ones, becomes highly probable. We shall suppose, that in a common bar of iron or steel the two magnetic ethers exist intermixed or in their neutral state; which for the greater ease of speaking of Chemical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism. t_hem may be called arctic ether and antarctJ·c ether. I1 k e t.h e two electric fluids they are ' and in this state expenments. not cognizable by our senses or When th_ese two _magnetic etl1ers are separated from each other and the arctic ether Is accumulated on one end of . ' h . h · an1ron or steel bar w tc Is then called the north pole of th . . ' ] . e magnet, and the antarctic et 1er Is accumulated on the other end of the ba . d . l th h r, an 1s t 1en termed e sot:t pole. of the magnet; they become capable of attractinO' other pieces of Iron or steel, and are thus cognizable by experiment 0 It seems probable,_ that it is not the magnetic ether itself whi~h attracts or repels particles of iron but that an attract· 1 · 1 ' · rve anc repu1 - stve e~ ler att~nds the magnetic ethers, as was shown to attend the elednc ones m N o. II· 9 · of t 11 1·s N ote; because magnetism does not pass t~rough other. bodies, as it does not escape from magnetised steel when m contact With other bodies; just as the electric fluids do not pass through glass, hu~ the attractive and repellent ethers, which atte:ld both the ~11agnetz~ and electric ethers, pass through aU bodies. .2. The promm~~t articles of analogical coincidence between magnetism and electnc1ty are first, that when one end of an iron bar possesses an accumulation of arctic mao-netic ether or northern l . h b ' po ~nty; t e other end possesses an accumulation of antarctic mag- . netic ether, or southern polarity.; in the same manner as when vitreous electric et~er is accumulated on one side of a coated glass jar, resinous electnc etl1er becomes accumulated on the other side of it· as the vitreous and resinous ethers strongly attract each othe·r, ~nd strongly repel the ethers of the same denomination, but are prevented from intermixing by the glass plane between them; so the arctic and antarctic ethers attract each other, and repel those of similar denomination, but are prevented from intermixino· by the iron or steel b . b emg a bad conductor of them; they will, nevertheless, oooner com-bine, when the bar is of soft iron, than when it is of hardened steel; and then they. slowly combine without explosion, that is, without emitting heat and light like the electric ethers, and therefore resemble a mixture of oxygen and pure ammonia; which unite silently producing a neutral fluid without emitting any other fluids previously combined with them. |