1652.  The quantity of electricity in 25.25 grains of water is, according to an estimate of the force which I formerly made (861.), equal to above 24 millions of charges of a large Leyden battery; or it would have kept any length of a platina wire 1/104 of an inch in diameter red-hot for an hour and a half (853.).  This result, though given only as an approximation, I have seen no reason as yet to alter, and it is confirmed generally by the experiments and results of M. Pouillet[A].  According to Mr. Wheatstone’s experiments, the influence or effects of the current would appear at a distance of 576,000 miles in a second[B].  We have, therefore, in this view of the matter, on the one hand, an enormous quantity of power equal to a most destructive thunder-storm appearing instantly at the distance of 576,000 miles from its source, and on the other, a quiet effect, in producing which the power had taken an hour and a half to travel through the tenth of an inch:  yet these are the equivalents to each other, being effects observed at the sections of one and the same current (1634.).

  [A] Becquerel, Traite de l’Electricite, v. p. 278.

  [B] Philosophical Transactions, 1834, p. 589.

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1653.  It is time that I should call attention to the lateral or transverse forces of the current.  The great things which have been achieved by Oersted, Arago, Ampere, Davy, De la Rive, and others, and the high degree of simplification which has been introduced into their arrangement by the theory of Ampere, have not only done their full service in advancing most rapidly this branch of knowledge, but have secured to it such attention that there is no necessity for urging on its pursuit.  I refer of course to magnetic action and its relations; but though this is the only recognised lateral action of the current, there is great reason for believing that others exist and would by their discovery reward a close search for them (951.).

1654.  The magnetic or transverse action of the current seems to be in a most extraordinary degree independent of those variations or modes of action which it presents directly in its course; it consequently is of the more value to us, as it gives us a higher relation of the power than any that might have varied with each mode of discharge.  This discharge, whether it be by conduction through a wire with infinite velocity (1652.), or by electrolyzation with its corresponding and exceeding slow motion (1651.), or by spark, and probably even by convection, produces a transverse magnetic action always the same in kind and direction.