Skip to content

Please be aware that some material may contain words, descriptions or illustrations which will not reflect current scientific understanding and may be considered in today's context inaccurate, unethical, offensive or distressing.

Description

Stevenson denies the existence of two electric fluids, and maintains that all the phenomena are explicable on the hypothesis of a single fluid, which when present in a conducting body renders it positive, and in a non-conducting body, negative. A body which is naturally a conductor, may, he asserts, be rendered otherwise, by changing its form.

Pencil marking on front reads 'Col [Edward] Sabine'.

Subject: Physics / Electricity

Received 11 November 1845.

An abstract of the paper was published in volume 5 of Abstracts of the Papers Printed in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London [later Proceedings of the Royal Society] as 'The electric fluid'.

Reference number
AP/28/24
Earliest possible date
November 1845
Physical description
Ink and graphite pencil on paper
Page extent
3 pages
Format
Manuscript

Creator name

William Ford Stevenson

View page for William Ford Stevenson

Use this record

Citation

William Ford Stevenson, Unpublished paper, 'The electric fluid' by W F [William Ford] Stevenson, November 1845, AP/28/24, The Royal Society Archives, London, https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/ap_28_24/unpublished-paper-the-electric-fluid-by-w-f-william-ford-stevenson, accessed on 10 November 2025

Link to this record

Embed this record

<iframe src="https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/embed/items/ap_28_24/unpublished-paper-the-electric-fluid-by-w-f-william-ford-stevenson" title="Unpublished paper, 'The electric fluid' by W F [William Ford] Stevenson" allow="fullscreen" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="500px"></iframe>

Related Publications

Hierarchy

This item is part of:

Related Fellows

Explore the collection

  • Archived Papers

    The 'Archived Papers' collection is comprised of original manuscript scientific papers and letters submitted to the Royal Society which remained unpublished or were abstracted in the journal 'Proceedings of the Royal Society' published from 1830 onwards.

    Dates: 1768 - 1989

    View collection