The Soul in Nature

THE LIFE OF H. C. OERSTED.

His experiments proved the truth of his suspicion that the voltaic current had an influence on the magnetized needle. He thought, with reason, that just as a body, when penetrated by a strong current of electricity, radiates heat and light on every side, such might also be produced by magnetic action. His observation that lightning altered the poles in magnetic needles, even when it had not struck them, seemed to confirm this. The true direction of the effect was still undetermined, however, though he succeeded in fully establishing it. In his lecture, when the decision of his long-cherished anticipation approached with unavoidable reality, he interrupted himself for a moment and immediately invited his audience to a practical trial. The first experiment was successful, though the effect was too feeble to give the law full validity at once. It was, however, perceived that the glass was penetrated by the electric current, as well as by every magnetic effect.

For two centuries, the opinion had been alternately accepted and rejected that electricity and magnetism are produced by the same forces; yet all endeavors to prove the accordance had been in vain. Oersted now completed the evidence through renewed experiments over several months using a very large galvanic chain of copper cells, zinc plates, and a weak acid. He proved that there is always a magnetic circulation around the electric conductor, and that the electric current, in accordance with a certain law, always exercises determined and similar impressions on the direction of the magnetic needle, even when it does not pass through the needle, but near it. Electro-magnetism was thus introduced into nature, not as an exception, but as a universal force of nature, which may be revealed in all bodies. A concise Latin account of the discovery of the preceding experiments was simultaneously sent to all the European capitals of science, and Oersted enjoyed the greatest and best reward: that his discovery