صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

If an electrical jar communicates by means of a long slender wire with a spherical conductor, and is charged in the ordinary way, the density of the electricity at any point of the interior surface of the jar, is to the density on the conductor itself, as the radius of the spherical conductor to the thickness of the glass in that point.

The total quantity of electricity contained in the interior of any number of equal and similar jars, when one of them communicates with the prime conductor and the others are charged by cascade, is precisely equal to that, which one only would receive, if placed in communication with the same conductor, its exterior surface being connected with the common reservoir. This method of charging batteries, therefore, must not be employed when any great accumulation of electricity is required.

It has been shown by M. PoissON, in his first Memoir on Magnetism (Mém. de l'Acad. de Sciences, 1821 et 1822), that when an electrified body is placed in the interior of a hollow spherical conducting shell of uniform thickness, it will not be acted upon in the slightest degree by any bodies exterior to the shell, however intensely they may be electrified. In the ninth article of the present Essay this is proved to be generally true, whatever may be the form or thickness of the conducting shell.

In the tenth article there will be found some simple equations, by means of which the density of the electricity induced on a spherical conducting surface, placed under the influence of any electrical forces whatever, is immediately given; and thence the general value of the potential function for any point either within or without this surface is determined from the arbitrary value at the surface itself, by the aid of a definite integral. The proportion in which the electricity will divide itself between two insulated conducting spheres of different diameters, connected by a very fine wire, is afterwards considered; and it is proved, that when the radius of one of them is small compared with the distance between their surfaces, the product of the mean density of the electricity on either sphere, by the radius of that sphere, and again by the shortest distance of its surface from the centre of the other sphere, will be the same for both. Hence when their distance is very great, the densities are in the inverse ratio of the radii of the spheres.

When any hollow conducting shell is charged with electricity, the whole of the fluid is carried to the exterior surface, without leaving any portion on the interior one, as may be immediately shown from the fourth and fifth articles. In the experimental verification of this, it is necessary to leave a small orifice in the shell: it became therefore a problem of some interest to determine the modification which this alteration would produce. We have, on this account, terminated the present article, by investigating the law of the distribution of electricity on a thin spherical conducting shell, having a small circular orifice, and have found that its density is very nearly constant on the exterior surface, except in the immediate vicinity of the orifice; and the density at any point p of the inner surface, is to the constant density on the outer one, as the product of the diameter of a circle into the cube of the radius of the orifice, is to the product of three times the circumference of that circle into the cube of the distance of p from the centre of the orifice; excepting as before those points in its immediate vicinity. Hence, if the diameter of the sphere were twelve inches, and that of the orifice one inch, the density at the point on the inner surface opposite the centre of the orifice, would be less than the hundred and thirty thousandth part of the constant density on the exterior surface.

In the eleventh article some of the effects due to atmospherical electricity are considered; the subject is not however insisted upon, as the great variability of the cause which produces them, and the impossibility of measuring it, gives a degree of vagueness to these determinations.

The form of a conducting body being given, it is in general a problem of great difficulty, to determine the law of the distribution of the electric fluid on its surface: but it is possible to give different forms, of almost every imaginable variety of shape, to conducting bodies; such, that the values of the density of the electricity on their surfaces may be rigorously assignable by the most simple calculations: the manner of doing this is explained in the twelfth article, and two examples of its use are given. In the last, the resulting form of the conducting body is an oblong spheroid, and the density of the electricity on its

surface, here found, agrees with the one long since deduced fronother methods.

Thus far perfect conductors only have been considered. In order to give an example of the application of theory to bodies. which are not so, we have, in the thirteenth article, supposed the matter of which they are formed to be endowed with a constant coercive force equal to 8, and analogous to friction in its operation, so that when the resultant of the electric forces acting upon any one of their elements is less than ẞ, the electrical state of this element shall remain unchanged; but, so soon as it begins to exceed B, a change shall ensue. Then imagining a solid of revolution to turn continually about its axis, and to be subject to a constant electrical force f acting in parallel right lines, we determine the permanent electrical state at which the body will ultimately arrive. The result of the analysis is, that in consequence of the coercive force B, the solid will receive a new polarity, equal to that which would be induced in it if it were a perfect conductor and acted upon by the constant force B, directed in lines parallel to one in the body's equator, making the angle 90°+y, with a plane passing through its axis and parallel to the direction of ƒ : ƒ being supposed resolved into two forces, one in the direction of the body's axis, the other b directed along the intersection of its equator with the plane just mentioned, and y being determined by the equation

[merged small][ocr errors]

In the latter part of the present article the same problem is considered under a more general point of view, and treated by a different analysis: the body's progress from the initial, towards that permanent state it was the object of the former part to determine is exhibited, and the great rapidity of this progress made evident by an example.

The phenomena which present themselves during the rotation of iron bodies, subject to the influence of the earth's magnetism, having lately engaged the attention of experimental philosophers, we have been induced to dwell a little on the solution of the preceding problem, since it may serve in some measure to illustrate what takes place in these cases. Indeed,

if there were any substances in nature whose magnetic powers, like those of iron and nickel, admit of considerable developement, and in which moreover the coercive force was, as we have here supposed it, the same for all their elements, the results of the preceding theory ought scarcely to differ from what would be observed in bodies formed of such substances, provided no one of their dimensions was very small, compared with the others. The hypothesis of a constant coercive force was adopted in this article, in order to simplify the calculations: probably, however, this is not exactly the case of nature, for a bar of the hardest steel has been shown (I think by Mr Barlow) to have a very considerable degree of magnetism induced in it by the earth's action, which appears to indicate, that although the coercive force of some of its particles is very great, there are others in which it is so small as not to be able to resist the feeble action of the earth. Nevertheless, when iron bodies are turned slowly round their axes, it would seem that our theory ought not to differ greatly from observation; and in particular, it is very probable the angle y might be rendered sensible to experiment, by sufficiently reducing b the component of the force f

The remaining articles treat of the theory of magnetism. This theory is here founded on an hypothesis relative to the constitution of magnetic bodies, first proposed by COULOMB, and afterwards generally received by philosophers, in which they are considered as formed of an infinite number of conducting elements, separated by intervals absolutely impervious to the magnetic fluid, and by means of the general results contained in the former part of the Essay, we readily obtain the necessary equations for determining the magnetic state induced in a body of any form, by the action of exterior magnetic forces. These equations accord with those M. POISSON has found by a very different method. (Mém. de l'Acad. des Sciences, 1821 et 1822.)

If the body in question be a hollow spherical shell of constant thickness, the analysis used by LAPLACE (Méc. Cél. Liv. 3) is applicable, and the problem capable of a complete solution, whatever may be the situation of the centres of the magnetic forces acting upon it. After having given the general solution, we have supposed the radius of the shell to become infinite, its

thickness remaining unchanged, and have thence deduced formulæ belonging to an indefinitely extended plate of uniform thickness. From these it follows, that when the point p, and the centres of the magnetic forces are situate on opposite sides of a soft iron plate of great extent, the total action on p will have the same direction as the resultant of all the forces, which would be exerted on the points p, p', p", "", etc. in infinitum if no plate were interposed, and will be equal to this resultant multiplied by a very small constant quantity: the points p,p′, p′′, p", &c. being all on a right line perpendicular to the flat surfaces of the plate, and receding from it so, that the distance between any two consecutive points may be equal to twice the plate's thickness.

What has just been advanced will be sensibly correct, on the supposition of the distances between the point p and the magnetic centres not being very great, compared with the plate's thickness, for, when these distances are exceedingly great, the interposition of the plate will make no sensible alteration in the force with which p is solicited.

When an elongated body, as a steel wire for instance, has, under the influence of powerful magnets, received a greater degree of magnetism than it can retain alone, and is afterwards left to itself, it is said to be magnetized to saturation. Now if in this state we consider any one of its conducting elements, the force with which a particle p of magnetism situate within the element tends to move, will evidently be precisely equal to its coercive force f, and in equilibrium with it. Supposing therefore this force to be the same for every element, it is clear that the degree of magnetism retained by the wire in a state of saturation, is, on account of its elongated form, exactly the same as would be induced by the action of a constant force, equal to ƒ, directed along lines parallel to its axis, if all the elements were perfect conductors; and consequently, may readily be determined by the general theory. The number and accuracy of COULOMB'S experiments on cylindric wires magnetized to saturation, rendered an application of theory to this particular case very desirable, in order to compare it with experience. We have therefore effected this in the last article, and the result of the comparison is of the most satisfactory kind.

« السابقةمتابعة »