Physical phenomenon of electrical charge
The fundamental physical state or dual power capable of attraction, repulsion, and induction when excited from equilibrium.
12 passagesPhenomenon
Electricity
Electrical attraction, charge, current, and related historical physical phenomena.
- Sources
- 18
- Passages
- 43
- In this corpus
- 1646–1920
Names and forms
Term history
Electricitypreferred label
Meanings in context
Senses in this corpus
Fundamental force of matter
A conceptual or physical power identified as the underlying cause of chemical affinity, molecular cohesion, and particle interaction.
3 passagesAtmospheric electrical phenomena
The manifestation of electrical charge and tension within the atmosphere, including lightning and luminous discharges.
3 passagesElectromagnetic and technical applications
The relationship between electricity and magnetism, or its practical application in communication and measurement.
2 passagesAnalyzed source evidence
Historical usages and claims
Distinct local senses and assertions recovered from the corpus. Quotations retain the source OCR and link to the full passage and scan.
On the Connexion of the Physical SciencesMary Somerville, 1858
same entryHistorical classification of electrical phenomena including static, voltaic, and electro-magnetic manifestations.
Common or Static Electricity, or Electricity of Tension—A Dual Power—Methods of exciting it—Attraction and Repulsion—Conduction—Electrics and Non-electrics—Induction—Dielectrics—Tension—Law of the Electric Force
Static electricity is characterized as a dual power capable of attraction and repulsion.
asserts · observation · propertyOn the Connexion of the Physical SciencesMary Somerville, 1858
same entryThe physical phenomenon of electricity, including its manifestations, induction, and relationship with magnetism.
Analogy and Identity of Electricity and Magnetism
The author asserts that electricity and magnetism share an identity in their action.
asserts · observation · identityElectricity and magnetism are described as having a mutual dependence with light and heat.
asserts · reasoning · propertyOn the Connexion of the Physical SciencesMary Somerville, 1858
same entryThe use of electrical transmission for the instantaneous communication of time signals to determine longitude.
The longitude is determined with extreme precision whenever it is possible to convey the time instantaneously by means of electricity from one place to another
Electricity can be used to transmit time signals instantaneously between locations.
asserts · reasoning · function useUsing electricity to convey time signals improves the precision of longitude determination by eliminating clock errors.
asserts · reasoning · causal effectOn the Connexion of the Physical SciencesMary Somerville, 1858
same entryElectricity identified as the ethereal medium surrounding material particles in Mossotti's hypothesis of cohesive forces.
he supposes that each is surrounded by an atmosphere of the ethereal medium, which he conceives to be electricity
Professor Mossotti hypothesizes that the ethereal medium surrounding material particles is electricity.
asserts · reasoning · identityElectricity, as an ethereal medium, is involved in the repulsive and attractive forces between particles of matter.
asserts · reasoning · mechanismOn the Connexion of the Physical SciencesMary Somerville, 1858
same entryElectricity as a fundamental physical power linked to chemical affinity and the state of particles.
It is merely a result of the electrical state of the particles, chemical affinity and electricity being only forms of the same power.
Chemical affinity and electricity are manifestations of the same fundamental power.
asserts · reasoning · identityChemical processes such as oxidation and combustion produce electricity.
asserts · observation · causal effectOn the Connexion of the Physical SciencesMary Somerville, 1858
same entryElectricity as a fundamental force driving chemical affinity and the composition/decomposition of matter.
Dr. Faraday has proved, by experiments on bodies both in solution and fusion, that chemical affinity is merely a result of the electrical state of the particles of matter.
Chemical affinity is caused by the electrical state of particles.
asserts · experiment · causal effectThe quantity of electricity required for decomposition is equal to that required for composition.
asserts · experiment · function useOn the Connexion of the Physical SciencesMary Somerville, 1858
same entryA list of phenomena and properties associated with static electricity and electrical force.
Common or Static Electricity, or Electricity of Tension—A Dual Power—Methods of exciting it—Attraction and Repulsion—Conduction—Electrics and Non-electrics—Induction—Dielectrics—Tension—Law of the Electric Force—Distribution
Electricity is classified as a dual power.
asserts · observation · classificationElectricity exhibits properties of attraction and repulsion.
asserts · observation · propertyOn the Connexion of the Physical SciencesMary Somerville, 1858
same entryA dual force or power capable of attraction, repulsion, and mechanical action when excited from equilibrium.
ELECTRICITY is a dual power which gives no visible sign of its existence when in equilibrio, but when elicited forces are developed capable of producing the most sudden, violent, and destructive effects
Electricity is defined as a dual force that exhibits no visible signs when in equilibrium but produces effects when excited.
asserts · observation · definitionThe hypothesis that electricity is a fluid is considered untenable, and it is instead understood as a force with twofold action.
asserts · reasoning · mechanismOn the Connexion of the Physical SciencesMary Somerville, 1858
same entryThe physical phenomenon of static electricity, its properties, and its generation through friction.
The science is divided into various branches, of which static or common electricity comes first under consideration
Electricities of the same polarity repel, while those of opposite polarity attract.
asserts · observation · propertyFriction between substances destroys electric equilibrium, separating positive and negative electricities.
asserts · observation · mechanismOn the Connexion of the Physical SciencesMary Somerville, 1858
same entryThe physical phenomenon of electrical charge generation through friction, pressure, and other mechanical processes.
The manner in which friction is performed also alters the kind of electricity.
Friction and mechanical interaction between different materials generate distinct positive and negative electrical states.
asserts · observation · mechanismPressure is a universal source of electricity across all bodies, provided they are separated to prevent recombination.
asserts · observation · mechanismOn the Connexion of the Physical SciencesMary Somerville, 1858
same entryThe physical phenomenon of electricity generated by various mechanical, thermal, and chemical processes.
In short, it may be generally stated, that when any cause whatever tends to destroy molecular attraction there is a development of electricity
The destruction of molecular attraction in substances leads to the development of electricity.
asserts · reasoning · causal effectM. Becquerel attributes the light produced by the collision of icebergs to the sudden separation of electricities.
reports · authority citation · mechanismOn the Connexion of the Physical SciencesMary Somerville, 1858
same entryThe physical phenomenon of electricity as a transferable force subject to resistance and conduction through materials.
Electricity may be transferred from one body to another in the same manner as heat is communicated, and like it too the body loses by the transmission.
Electricity behaves similarly to heat in its ability to be transferred between bodies.
asserts · reasoning · propertyElectricity moves more easily through conductors than through non-conductors.
asserts · observation · mechanismOn the Connexion of the Physical SciencesMary Somerville, 1858
same entryThe physical phenomenon of electrical charge, its retention, and its behavior in conductors and non-conductors.
There are a great many substances called non-electrics in which electricity is not sensibly developed by friction unless they be insulated, because it is carried off by their conducting power as soon as elicited.
Electricity cannot be accumulated in a conducting substance unless it is insulated.
asserts · reasoning · propertySubstances classified as non-electrics can be excited if they are insulated.
asserts · observation · classificationOn the Connexion of the Physical SciencesMary Somerville, 1858
same entryThe physical phenomenon of electrical charge and its capacity to induce opposite states in nearby bodies.
A body charged with electricity, although perfectly insulated, so that all escape of electricity is prevented, tends to produce an electric state of the opposite kind in all bodies in its vicinity.
An electrified body induces an opposite electrical state in nearby bodies, with the effect increasing as distance decreases.
asserts · observation · causal effectThe attraction between electrified and neutral substances is caused by the induction-driven alteration of molecular states.
asserts · reasoning · mechanismOn the Connexion of the Physical SciencesMary Somerville, 1858
same entryThe physical laws governing electrical attraction and repulsion and their measurement via experimental instruments.
The law of electrical attraction and repulsion has been determined by suspending a needle of gum-lac horizontally by a silk fibre, the needle carrying at one end a piece of electrified gold leaf.
The intensity of electrical attraction and repulsion is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between bodies.
asserts · experiment · propertyThe law of repulsive force is subject to disturbances caused by inductive action.
asserts · observation · causal effectOn the Connexion of the Physical SciencesMary Somerville, 1858
same entryThe physical quantity of electricity held by bodies in relation to their surface area and shape.
The quantity of electricity bodies are capable of receiving does not follow the proportion of their bulk, but depends principally upon the form and extent of their surface.
The capacity of a body to hold electricity is determined by its surface area and shape rather than its volume.
asserts · reasoning · propertyElectrical intensity varies inversely as the square of the surface area when the quantity of electricity is constant.
asserts · experiment · mechanismOn the Connexion of the Physical SciencesMary Somerville, 1858
same entryThe physical agent or fluid capable of accumulation, tension, and discharge in insulated bodies.
Electricity may be accumulated to a great extent in insulated bodies, and so long as it is quiescent it occasions no sensible change in their properties.
The tension of electricity is proportional to the coercive force of the surrounding air.
asserts · reasoning · propertyThe heat generated by an electric discharge is proportional to the square of the quantity of electricity.
asserts · observation · causal effectOn the Connexion of the Physical SciencesMary Somerville, 1858
same entryAtmospheric electricity and its variations in intensity based on environmental and chemical conditions.
The earth possesses a powerful electrical tension, and the atmosphere when clear is almost always positively electric. Its electricity is stronger in winter than in summer
Atmospheric electricity exhibits seasonal and diurnal variations in intensity.
asserts · observation · propertyChemical action during the evaporation of water containing specific substances generates electricity.
reports · experiment · causal effectOn the Connexion of the Physical SciencesMary Somerville, 1858
same entryThe physical presence and intensity of electrical charge within atmospheric clouds and its role in lightning.
The actual quantity of electricity in any part of a cloud is extremely small.
The amount of electricity contained within any specific portion of a cloud is very low.
asserts · reasoning · propertyThe intensity of lightning is caused by the rapid condensation of electricity spread over a large surface.
asserts · reasoning · mechanismOn the Connexion of the Physical SciencesMary Somerville, 1858
same entryThe physical phenomenon of atmospheric electricity manifesting as luminous discharges on elevated objects.
when the atmosphere is highly charged with electricity, it not unfrequently happens that electric light, in the form of a star, is seen on the topmasts and yard-arms of ships.
Rarefied air reduces the coercive power of the atmosphere, allowing electricity to escape as diffuse flashes.
asserts · reasoning · causal effectLuminous phenomena observed on ships and people are identified as electric light.
asserts · observation · classificationPrimary-source evidence
Full passages, chronologically
Does our conceptual translation of the perceptual flux enable us also to understand the latter better? What do we mean Scone by making us ‘understand’? Applying our pragmatic rule to the interpretation of the word, we see that the better we understand anything the more we are able to tell about it. Judged by this test, concepts do make us understand our percepts better: knowing what these are, we can tell all sorts of farther truths about them, based on the relation of those whats to other whats. The whole system of relations, spatial, temporal, and logical, of our fact, gets plotted out. An ancient philosophical opinion, inherited from Aristotle, is that we do not understand a thing until we know it by its causes. When the maidservant says that ‘the cat’ broke the tea-cup, she would have us conceive the fracture in a causally explanatory way. No otherwise when Clerk-Maxwell asks us to conceive of gas-electricity as due to molecular bombardment. An imaginary agent out of sight becomes in each case a part of the cosmic context in which we now place the percept to be explained; and the explanation is valid in so far as the new causal that is itself conceived in a context that makes its existence probable, and with a nature agreeable to the effects it is imagined to produce. All our scientific explanations would seem to conform to this simple type of the ‘necessary cat.’ The conceived order of nature built round the perceived order and explaining it theoretically, as we say, is only a system of hypothetically imagined thats, the whats of which harmoniously connect themselves with the what of any that which we immediately perceive.
There are innumerable modes of union among its parts, some obtaining on a larger, some on a smaller scale. Not all the parts of our world are united mechanically, for some can move without the others moving. They all seem united by gravitation, however, so far as they are material things. Some again of these are united chemically, while others are not; and the like is true of thermic, optical, electrical, and other physical connections. These connections are specifications of what we mean by the word oneness when we apply it to our world. We should not call it one unless its parts were connected in these and other ways. But then it is clear that by the same logic we ought to call it ‘many.’ so far as its parts are disconnected in these same ways, chemically inert towards one another or nonconductors to electricity, light and heat.
The question then presents itself: In what shape is it most reasonable to suppose that the will thus postulated is actually there? And here again there are various pneumatological possibilities, which must be considered first in abstract form. Thus the will to communicate may come either from permanent entities, or from an entity that arises for the occasion. R. H.’s spirit would be a permanent entity; and inferior parasitic spirits (“daimons,” elementals, or whatever their traditional names might be) would be permanent entities. An improvised entity might be a limited process of consciousness arising in the cosmic reservoir of earth’s memories, when certain conditions favoring systematized activity in particular tracts thereof were fulfilled. The conditions in that case might be conceived after the analogy of what happens when two poles of different potential are created in a mass of matter, and cause a current of electricity, or what not, to pass through an intervening tract of space until then the seat of rest.