Abstract
A PECULIAR pamphlet, said to be compiled for the instruction of the electrical staff of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, but issued gratis bythe author, and devoid of any publisher. It commences with a novel version of the story of the shepherd of Mount Ida, who is given not only a local habitation, but a name, and it ends with a material notion of lines of force which will startle some of our readers. Moreover, electrical discharges, magnetic clicks, &c., are “caused by the lines of force adjusting themselves to each other.” It contains nothing new of magnetism, but it promulgates some strange notions. “The Great Architect of the universe employs no rectilinear motions or angles.” “Each atom of matter possesses in itself all the properties of a magnet, and emits its own lines of force.” “All particles of matter, solid, liquid, or gaseous, are in a polarised state, and consequently emit lines of force.” “The (electrical) conducting properties are the result of forced polarisation.” “Each atom composing our atmosphere is in a state of polarisation, and is influenced by the magnetic force emanating from the earth.” “The force which is called gravity is the effect of such an universal system of polarisation, with which God has endowed all matter.” “Iron is very susceptible of polarisation from the effects of what is called terrestrial magnetism (the polarised atoms of the air).”
Magnetism.
By Willoughby Smith. (London: November, 1885.)
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Our Book Shelf . Nature 33, 364 (1886). https://doi.org/10.1038/033364a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/033364a0