HKB
Received June 21, 1838.--Read June 21, 1838.
S 20. Nature of the electric force or forces.
The theory of induction set forth and illustrated in the three preceding series of experimental researches does not assume anything new as to the nature of the electric force or forces, but only as to their distribution. The effects may depend upon the association of one electric fluid with the particles of matter, as in the theory of Franklin, Epinus, Cavendish, and Mossotti; or they may depend upon the association of two electric fluids, as in the theory of Dufay and Poisson; or they may not depend upon anything which can properly be called the electric fluid, but on vibrations or other affections of the matter in which they appear. The theory is unaffected by such differences in the mode of viewing the nature of the forces; and though it professes to perform the important office of stating how the powers are arranged (at least in inductive phenomena), it does not, as far as I can yet perceive, supply a single experiment which can be considered as a distinguishing test of the truth of any one of these various views,
But, to ascertain how the forces are arranged, to trace them in their various relations to the particles of matter, to determine their general laws, and also the specific differences which occur under these laws, is as important as, if not more so than, to know whether the forces reside in a fluid or not; and with the hope of assisting in this research, I shall offer some further developments, theoretical and experimental, of the conditions under which I suppose the particles of matter are placed when exhibiting inductive phenomena.
The theory assumes that all the particles, whether of insulating or conducting matter, are as wholes conductors.
That not being polar in their normal state, they can become so by the influence of neighbouring charged particles, the polar state being developed at the instant, exactly as in an insulated conducting mass consisting of many particles.
That the particles when polarized are in a forced state, and tend to return to their normal or natural condition.
That being as wholes conductors, they can readily be charged, either bodily or polarly.
That particles which being contiguous[A] are also in the line of inductive action can communicate or transfer their polar forces one to another more or less readily.
[A] See note to 1164.--Dec. 1838.
That those doing so less readily require the polar forces to be raised to a higher degree before this transference or communication takes place.
That the ready communication of forces between contiguous particles constitutes conduction, and the difficult communication insulation; conductors and insulators being bodies whose particles naturally possess the property of communicating their respective forces easily or with difficulty; having these differences just as they have differences of any other natural property.
That ordinary induction is the effect resulting from the action of matter charged with excited or free electricity upon insulating matter, tending to produce in it an equal amount of the contrary state.
That it can do this only by polarizing the particles contiguous to it, which perform the same office to the next, and these again to those beyond; and that thus the action is propagated from the excited body to the next conducting mass, and there renders the contrary force evident in consequence of the effect of communication which supervenes in the conducting mass upon the polarization of the particles of that body (1675.).
That therefore induction can only take place through or across insulators; that induction is insulation, it being the necessary consequence of the state of the particles and the mode in which the influence of electrical forces is transferred or transmitted through or across such insulating media.