Chapter 15.
Summary.
When from an Alpine height the eye of the climber ranges over the
mountains, he finds that for the most part they resolve themselves
into distinct groups, each consisting of a dominant mass surrounded
by peaks of lesser elevation. The power which lifted the mightier
eminences, in nearly all cases lifted others to an almost equal
height. And so it is with the discoveries of Faraday. As a general
rule, the dominant result does not stand alone, but forms the
culminating point of a vast and varied mass of inquiry. In this
way, round about his great discovery of Magneto-electric Induction,
other weighty labours group themselves. His investigations on the
Extra Current; on the Polar and other Condition of Diamagnetic
Bodies; on Lines of Magnetic Force, their definite character and
distribution; on the employment of the Induced Magneto-electric
Current as a measure and test of Magnetic Action; on the Revulsive
Phenomena of the magnetic field, are all, notwithstanding the
diversity of title, researches in the domain of Magneto-electric
Induction.
Faraday's second group of researches and discoveries embrace the
chemical phenomena of the current. The dominant result here is the
great law of definite Electro-chemical Decomposition, around which
are massed various researches on Electro-chemical Conduction and on
Electrolysis both with the Machine and with the Pile. To this group
also belongs his analysis of the Contact Theory, his inquiries as to
the Source of Voltaic Electricity, and his final development of the
Chemical Theory of the pile.
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