Mémoires sur l'Électromagnétisme et l'Électrodynamique

Abstract

THE two memoirs given in this volume have been taken from Ampere's wonderful “Recueil d'observa-tions electrodynamiques,” published in 1822. (Ersted had described a few years previously the action of an electric current on a compass needle, and in the first memoir under notice, the mutual action of two electric currents on one another is described. The author then describes the apparatus he made and the experiments he carried out. Finally he formulates the laws which we use to-day. In the second memoir the formula for the mutual action between two infinitely small elements of conductors carrying currents is proved. Ampere's researches paved the way for much of Faraday's work, and Clerk Maxwell makes full use of his results in his treatise. Clerk Maxwell well called Ampere the Newton of Electricity. The guiding experiments and the theory seemed to start fully equipped from his brain just as Pallas Athene was born fully armed from the head of Zeus.

Mémoires sur l'Électromagnétisme et l'Électrodynamique.

André-Marie

Ampère

Par. (Les Maîtres de la Pensée Scientifique: Collection de Mémoires et Ouvrages. Publiée par les soins de Maurice Solovine.) Pp. xiv+111. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars et Cie, 1921.) 3 francs net.