Note 59 — Book VI (continued 11)
Reading edition
Whewell, “Hist. of Induc. Sci.,” 1859, Vol. II. p. 244. It paved the way for his subsequent identification of the forces of electricity, galvanism and magnetism.
Prof. W. B. Rogers remarks that attempts to discover this connection had been made with galvanic piles or batteries whose poles were not connected by conductors, under the expectation that these would show magnetical relations, although in such cases the electricity accumulated at the extremities was evidently stagnant. It was reserved for Oersted first to bring into prominent view the fact that it was not while the electricity was thus at rest, but while it was flowing through the wire connecting the two poles, that it exhibited magnetic action, and that a wire thus carrying a current, while it had the power of affecting a magnetic needle, was in turn susceptible of being acted on by a magnet; and this was the initial step in the science of electro-magnetism.