As an instance of the obstacles which erroneous hypotheses throw
in the way of scientific discovery, Professor Faraday adduces the
unsuccessful attempts that had been made in England to educe Magnetism
from Electricity until Oersted showed the simple way. Faraday relates,
that when he came to the Royal Institution as an assistant in the
laboratory, he saw Davy, Wollaston, and Young trying, by every way that
suggested itself to them, to produce magnetic effects from an electric
current; but having their minds diverted from the true course by their
existing hypotheses, it did not occur to them to try the effect of
holding a wire through which an electric current was passing over a
suspended magnetic needle. Had they done so, as Oersted afterwards did,
the immediate deflection of the needle would have proved the magnetic
property of an electric current. Faraday has shown that the magnetism
of a steel bar is caused by the accumulated action of all the particles
of which it is composed: this he proves by first magnetising a small
steel bar, and then breaking it successively into smaller and smaller
pieces, each one of which possesses a separate pole; and the same
operation may be continued until the particles become so small as not
to be distinguishable without a microscope.
We quote the above from a late Number of the _Philosophical Magazine_,
wherein also we find the following noble tribute to the genius and
public and private worth of Faraday:
The public never can know and appreciate the national value of such
a man as Faraday. He does not work to please the public, nor to win
its guineas; and the said public, if asked its opinion as to the
practical value of his researches, can see no possible practical
issue there. The public does not know that we need prophets
more than mechanics in science,--inspired men, who, by patient
self-denial and the exercise of the high intellectual gifts of the
Creator, bring us intelligence of His doings in Nature. To them
their pursuits are good in themselves. Their chief reward is the
delight of being admitted into communion with Nature, the pleasure
of tracing out and proclaiming her laws, wholly forgetful whether
those laws will ever augment our banker’s account or improve our
knowledge of cookery. _Such men, though not honoured by the title
of “practical,” are they which make practical men possible._
They bring us the tamed forces of Nature, and leave it to others
to contrive the machinery to which they may be yoked. If we are
rightly informed, it was Faradaic electricity which shot the glad
tidings of the fall of Sebastopol from Balaklava to Varna. Had
this man converted his talent to commercial purposes, as so many
do, we should not like to set a limit to his professional income.
The quality of his services cannot be expressed by pounds; but
that brave body, which for forty years has been the instrument
of that great soul, is a fit object for a nation’s care, as the
achievements of the man are, or will one day be, the object of a
nation’s pride and gratitude.