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Oersted's Discovery of Electromagnetism: A. M. Snelders
Oersted's Discovery of Electromagnetism: A. M. Snelders
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O n 21 July 1820 the Danish physicist and chemist Hans Christian Oersted
(1777-1851) announced in a four-page Latin pamphlet his discovery of the
effect of an electric current on a magnetic needle suspended in the earth's
magnetic field. H e sent his publication to a large number of prominent men of
science and scientific societies. It was headed Experimenta circa effecturn
conflictus electrici in acum magneticam. Before long it was translated into
Danish, Dutch, English, French, German and Italian. The English version
appeared in the October issue of the Annals of Philosophy as 'Experiments on
the Effect of a Current of Electricity on the Magnetic Needle'.'
In the spring of 1820 Oersted found out that a pivoted magnetic needle
placed parallel to a wire carrying an electric current made a great oscillation.
The needle deflected one way for one direction of the current and the opposite
way for the other direction. Oersted made use of a large battery of low internal
resistance, which he had constructed together with his friend, the lawyer
Lauritz Esmarch (1765-1842).The apparatus consisted of twenty copper
troughs, twelve inches long and equally high and two and a half inches broad
(fig. 18). The trough formed the positive pole of the cell. In each cell a zinc
plate was fastened to a hoop which protruded from the copper trough of the
adjoining cell. The troughs were filled with water containing 1/60th of its
weight of sulphuric acid and an equal weight of nitric acid:
Let the straight part of this wire [carryingthe current] be placed horizontally above the
magnetic needle, properly suspended, and parallel to it. If necessary, the uniting wire is
bent so as to assume a proper position for the experiment. Things being in this state,
the needle will be moved, and the end of it next the negative side of the battery will go
~estward.~
If the wire was held under the magnetic needle, it moved in the opposite
direction. The deflection of the magnetic needle depended on the distance
between the needle and the wire and on the 'power of the battery'. In Oersted's
experiments the declination of the needle made an angle of about 45'.
As a simple rule for finding the direction of the force upon the magnetic
needle, Oersted went on to propose:
"hat
these facts may be the more easily retained, we may use this formula -the pole
above which the negative electricity enters is turned to the west; under which, to the
east.
It came as a surprise that the direction of the force was perpendicular to a
plane through the wire and the needle. This observation was more remarkable
than the fact that an electric current acted on a magnetic needle. For a long
time scientists had assumed some connection between electricity a n d magnet-
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O E R S T E D ' S E A R L Y LIFE
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H. A. M. SNELDERS
These two books no doubt deserve attention for the beautiful and great ideas we findin
them, but on account of the not very rigorous method by which the author intermingles
empirical propositions without sufficiently distinguishing them from a priori propositions these books are robbed of much of their value, especially as the empirical
propositions adduced are often utterly false."
Oersted's study of Kant's critical philosophy gave him an excellent background for his later scientific work. It led him to the realization that for a law
of nature which is absolutely valid an a priori foundation is necessary. But it
also made him an opponent of the atomic theory for the greater part of his life.
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H. A . M . S N E L D E R S
seeking the unity of nature they so firmly believed in. This influence of the
speculative German spirit on Oersted was not, however, superseded by
French experimentation, notwithstanding his somewhat critical attitude
towards Naturphilosophie. From a philosophical point of view he was able to
accept without question the more speculative views not only of Ritter, but also
of the Hungarian Jakob Joseph Winterl (1739-1809). This professor of
chemistry and botany at the University of Buda believed that he had found
compounds which were still more simple than chemical elements and from
which in the end all matter was built up.13 Winterl called these hypothetical
substances 'Andronia' (the principle of acidity) and 'Thelycke' (the principle
of alkalinity). Oersted became acquainted with Winterl's speculations during
his stay with Ritter. He was especially enthusiastic about Winterl's metaphysical idea that all the forces of nature arise from the same fundamental
principles of heat and light, acid and alkali, electricity and magnetism, namely
the positive and negative principles of electricity. It was this concept which
gave unity and connection to all experience. Because of this interest in
Winterl's views, Oersted came to be considered, around 1805, as a
Naturphilosoph. However, his faith in Winterl's two principles sustained a
severe shock with the failure of a number of chemists to isolate the 'Andronia'.
By 1807 his confidence in Winterl's theory had dissipated, and at the same
time Ritter's influence on him decreased considerably. Oersted's belief in
Romantic natural philosophy declined in the following years, even though his
faith in the unity of all the forces of nature remained unchanged.
In 1806 Oersted became Extraordinary Professor of physics at the University of Copenhagen. (Only in 1817 was he promoted to Ordinary Professor.)
H e made experimental researches on the acoustical figures of Ernst Chladni
(the geometrical figures formed when a sand-covered plate is subjected to
acoustical vibration), to which he was led by the hope of finding electric
effects accompanying the oscillations (1807). Oersted held the belief that
electricity, galvanism and magnetism were not imponderable substances, as
was generally assumed, but mere modifications of the general primitive forces
(Grundkrafte) of attraction and repulsion under different circumstances. At
the end of a book entitled Materialen zu einer Chemie des neunzehnten
]ahrhunderts (Materials for a Chemistry of the Nineteenth Century) (1803),
Oersted stated:
In the same year he published an article in which he stated that the electric
conflict in a wire is caused by the contrary effect of the two kinds of
electricities which are accumulated in the poles of the Galvanic battery.16 T h e
propagation of electricity in a wire is a continuous disturbance and restoration of an equilibrium and therefore not to be considered as a continuous
current.
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The constituent principles of heat which play their role in the alkalis and acids, in
electricity, and in light are also the principles of magnetism, and thus we have the unity
of all forces which, working on each other, govern the whole cosmic system, and the
former physical sciences thus combine into one united physics.14
In 1806 Oersted suggested that all natural phenomena are produced by the
same principle, which 'appears in most different forms as, for example, light,
heat, electricity, magnetism, and so on'.15
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H. A . M. S N E L D E R S
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19 A page from Oersted's laboratory notebook, July 1820, showing the action
of electricity on a magnet.
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From the preceding facts we may likewisecollect that this conflict performs circles; for
without this condition, it seems impossible that the one part of the uniting wire, when
placed below the magnetic pole, should drive it to the east, and when placed above it
towards the west; for it is the nature of a circle that the motions in opposite parts
should have an opposite direction.
The centre of force does not act attractively or repulsively on the magnetic
poles, but it drives the poles in a circle around it. Oersted was well aware t h a t
this whirling was a new action of force and that it was not analogous to the
central forces (forces acting in straight lines between points) of attraction a n d
repulsion that underlie the phenomena of gravitation, electricity and magnetism. His notion of circular magnetic lines of force, which cut a currentcarrying wire in planes perpendicular to the conductor, seems very modern,
but has nothing to do with the later concepts of field theory.
Immediately after the foregoing, Oersted suggested that the ideas of a
circular movement in the medium surrounding the electric conflict would be
of significance for the theory of the nature of light:
I shall merely add to the above that I have demonstrated in a book published five years
ago that heat and light consist of the conflict of the electricities. From the observations
h o w stated, we may conclude that a circular motion likewise occurs in these effects.
This I think will contribute very much to illustrate the phenomena to which the
appellation of polarization of light has been given.
Oersted's Latin pamphlet was a preliminary communication. It was rather
too brief to be perfectly intelligible. In the July issue of the Journal fur Chemie
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H. A . M . S N E L D E R S
239
und Physik, the same number in which the German translation of the Latin
pamphlet was printed, we find another paper with Oersted's extension of his
experiments. This article was translated into English as 'New Electromagnetic Experiments' and printed in the Annals of Philosophy of November
1820." Oersted reported that a Galvanic pile composed of a hundred discs of
two square inches of zinc andcopper, and a paper moistened with salt water to
serve as the fluid conductor, has hardly any effect upon the magnetic needle.
O n the other hand a single galvanic cell of zinc and copper, with for the
conductor a liquid of one part sulphuric acid and one part of nitric acid in sixty
parts of water, gave a clear deflection of the needle. All the effects of the
experiments are made more powerful by using a cell with large plates instead
of smaller ones, and also by using a large cell instead of a battery of smaller
cells: 'The magnetic effects d o not seem to depend upon the intensity of the
electricity, but solely on its quantity.'13 Oersted also showed the effect of a
stationary magnet upon a moveable part of an electric current (the so-called
reversed Oersted effect).
Oersted's discovery of the action of a n electric current on a magnetic needle
was a direct consequence of his metaphysical belief in the unity of all natural
forces. In the circle of the German Romantics, he was held in great respect. But
in contrast t o certain speculative scientists of his time, Oersted was a man of
such solid learning that he was apparently but little susceptible to purely
speculative thinking. From the beginning of his scientific career we can
distinguish in Oersted two main streams: a speculative one and an empirical
one. Both aspects divided his work and his interests. Sometimes one of the two
dominated, but never suppressed the other totally. Oersted was an adherent of
the critical philosophy of Kant, but he was also influenced by the speculative
Naturphilosophie. H e took a liking to vaguely formulated hypotheses, but
differed sharply from Schelling in his acceptance of the fundamental importance of careful observation. His attitude towards Naturphilosophie changed
t ~nature remained
in the course of his life, but the idea of unity and ~ o l a r i in
prominent. Until the end of his life, Oersted believed in a philosophy of the
unity of all forces of nature:
The laws of nature in the material world, are laws of reason, revelations of a rational
will; but when we thus consider all material nature, as the constant work of eternal
reason, our contemplation cannot remain at this point, but leads us by thought to view
the laws of the universal nature. In other words, soul and nature are one, seen from two
different sides: thus we cease to wonder at their harmony."
NOTES
1 H. C. Oersted, 'Experiments on the Effect of a Current of Electricity on the
Magnetic Needle', Annals of Philosophy, 16 (1820),273-6.
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