Unpublished paper, 'On some phenomena and motions of metals under the influence of magnetic force' by William Sykes Ward

Description

Ward describes a series of experiments relative to the principal phenomena of dia-magnetism, through which he has observed that the nature or direction of the action upon many metals varies with the intensity of the magnetic force, the effects being in accordance with the observations of Professor PIücker; and in pursuing his researches with the view to ascertain how far the magnetic and dia-magnetic forces might be coexistent in the same metal, other phenomena dependent on the power of the magnet presented themselves. On submitting gold, silver, lead, tin, zinc and cadmium to the action of the electromagnet when excited by an electric current of moderate strength, or when the polar terminations of the magnet were at a distance not less than an inch, these metals point axially. When the battery power is somewhat increased and the poles brought nearer to each other, instead of the metal being more strongly attracted, it becomes less sensible to either attraction or repulsion, becoming very sluggish in its motions; but when the magnet is well-excited and the polar terminations brought within a quarter of an inch of each other, most of those metals point decidedly equatorially, and are repelled as dia-magnetics.

Subject: Metallurgy / Chemistry / Magnetism

Received 14 June 1849. Communicated by William West.

Whilst the Royal Society declined to publish this paper in full, 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 'On some phenomena and motions of metals under the influence of magnetic force'.

Reference number

AP/32/22

Earliest possible date

12 June 1849

Physical description

Ink on paper

Page extent

49 pages

Format

Manuscript