The American Cyclopedia, Vol. 40

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Excerpt from The American Cyclopedia, Vol. 40: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge, Magnetism-MotrilAgnetism, the name given to the phenom ena displayed by magnets. If a bar of slightly tempered steel be held vertically and struck several blows with a wooden mallet, it will acquire the property of attracting iron filings at its two extremities. The same prop erty maybe communicated from one bar of steel to any number of similar bars, by rub bing one half of the length of each of the lat ter with the end of the former which was to ward the earth in the experiment above men tioned, and the remaining half with the other N. S. N. 8. N S N. S N S. No end of the same bar. In this process a remark able fact becomes evident, namely, that the bar which is employed to impart the magnetic pizoperty loses noneof its own power, on the contrary, if the process is properly performed, it will become stronger, and hence we deduce the conclusion, that in magnetization there is no transfer of any substance from one body to another, but the development of a latent prin ciple. If a magnetized bar be suspended by a fibre of untwisted silk, in such a manner as to have perfect freedom of motion, it will assume a N. And S. Direction, that is, it will exhibit the phenomena called polarity. If to either end of a magnetized bar thus suspended a piece of soft iron be approached, attraction will be exhibited between them, when a simi lar bar is rolled in iron filings, the latter will be found to adhere in thick clusters at the two ends or poles, ' while none will attach them selves to the middle of the bar. If, instead of presenting to the suspended magnet pieces of soft iron, we bring near to its two ends in suc cession the two poles of another magnetized bar, repulsion as well as attraction will be exhibited, and by an attentive study of the phenomena we shall find that similarly mag netized ends repel, and dissimilarly magnetized ends attract each other. These forces act at great distances, through all interposed bodies.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.