. Bulletin. Science. Figure 38.—One of the first Weston cells used by the National Bureau of Standards. {USMM J1648J; Smithsonian photo 468^4.) Figure 39.—A model of Oersted's wire experi- ment. {USNM 4yio6-A; Smithsonian photo 3150 4'A.) The Electromagnet The first step towards the invention of an electro- magnet was taken by Hans C. Oersted, a professor of physics at Copenhagen who subscribed to the widely diffused view of the GeriTian Naturphilosoph that all the forces of nature were somehow related. This belief seemed to Oersted to be borne out espe- cially in the case of electricity and m
. Bulletin. Science. Figure 38.—One of the first Weston cells used by the National Bureau of Standards. {USMM J1648J; Smithsonian photo 468^4.) Figure 39.—A model of Oersted's wire experi- ment. {USNM 4yio6-A; Smithsonian photo 3150 4'A.) The Electromagnet The first step towards the invention of an electro- magnet was taken by Hans C. Oersted, a professor of physics at Copenhagen who subscribed to the widely diffused view of the GeriTian Naturphilosoph that all the forces of nature were somehow related. This belief seemed to Oersted to be borne out espe- cially in the case of electricity and magnetism where the attractions and repulsions followed the same mathematical laws. Other speculators and experi- menters had presented what they considered to be proof of a relation between magnetism and electricity, magnetism and light, and electricity and light; but the proof rested on such dubious experiments that most of the prominent scientists of the early 19th century were justifiably skeptical of such an hypothesis. But after many trials Oersted did find a relation between magnetism and electricity when he dis- covered that a current-carrying conductor, no matter of what material it was made, would cause a magnetic needle in its vicinity to orient itself at right angles to the conductor (fig. 39). Oersted's brief notice ^* of his discovery was tested within a few weeks by some of the world's leading scientists—by Sir Humphrey Davy ^^ at the Royal Insti- tution in London; by Dominique Arago,^" one of the editors of the Annales de Chimie et de Physique at the Aca- demic des Sciences in Paris; by Auguste de la Rive, ^' professor of chemistry at Geneva, Switzerland; by J. S. Schweigger,*- professor of physics and chem- istry at Halle and editor of the Journal Jilr Chemie und Physik; and by L. W. Gilbert,''' professor of physics at the university in Leipzig and editor of the Annalen der Physik und der physikalischen Chemie. All of these scientists confirmed Oerste
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Keywords: ., bookauthorunitedstatesdepto, bookcentury1900, booksubjectscience
