Fragments of science for unscientific people : a series of detached essays, lectures, and reviews / by John Tyndall.

Date:
1871
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fragments of science for unscientific people : a series of detached essays, lectures, and reviews / by John Tyndall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    ' Next in order I will proceed to discuss by what law of nature it comes to pass that iron can be attracted by that stone which the Greeks call the Magnet from the name of its native place, because it has its origin within the bounds of the country of the Magne.sians. This stone is more wondered at because it often produces a chain of [iron] rings hanging down from it. Thus you may see five and more suspended in succession and tossing about in the light airs, one always hanging from the other and attached to its lower side, and each in turn one from the other experiencing the binding power of the stone: with such a continued current its force flies through all. 'In things of this kind many things must be established before you can assign the true law of the thing in question, and it must be approached by a very circuitous road; wherefore all the more I call for an attentive ear and mind.'—Lucretius, De Rerum Nutura, Lib. VI., Munro's Translation, p. 317. This lecture is a plain statement of the elementary facts of magnetism, of one magnetic theory, and of the methods to be pursued in mastering both. It has already circulated among the teachers mentioned on its title-page, and I had some doubts as to the propriety of its insertion here. But on reading it, it seemed so likely to he helpful, that my scruples disappeared. J. T.