es, tensions and motions of an universal
Aether.

CHAPTER IX

AETHER AND MAGNETISM

ART. 86. _Electro-magnetism._--We have now to look at the relation of
magnetism to electricity, or, in other words, to prove the identity that
exists between magnetism and electricity. In Art. 78 we have proved the
identity between electricity and light, so that if we can now prove the
identity between electricity and magnetism, then, wherever we get
aetherial light waves, we must also get aetherial electro-magnetic
waves.

As the light waves due to the vibrations of the Aether are practically
universal in extent, then it must follow, if the identity of the light
waves with electro-magnetic waves is established, that the universality
of electro-magnetic waves is established also, with the natural result,
that, wherever we get these electro-magnetic waves, there we shall have
the conditions by which all electro-magnetic phenomena are produced.

Now it can be demonstrated by actual experiment that wherever we get a
circular current of electricity, there we have magnetic phenomena
manifested. The two are inseparably connected, and it is impossible to
obtain the one without the other. For example, suppose we have a wire
conveying a current of electricity and make it into a coil as in Figure
15, what is the result? The result is, that the coil of wire has
actually been converted into a magnet.

It will attract iron filings that are brought near it, and also
magnetize an iron bar placed in the centre of the coils, and convert
that into a magnet. Indeed, there is nothing which can be done by an
ordinary bar magnet which cannot be done by a coiled wire conveying an
electric current.

From this and similar experiments it can be demonstrated that wherever
we get a circular current of electricity, there, associated with that
current, are all the phenomena incidental to and associated with the
ordinary bar magnet. This leads us to the truth discovered by Ampere,
that magnetism is nothing more or less than electricity in rotation, or
that it is due to a whirl of electricity circulating round the molecule
of any body. From certain experiments which he made in relation to the
mutual action of two circuits on each other, with currents flowing
through them, he came to the conclusion that the magnetism of the
molecule of each magnet is due to electric currents circulating round
it.