On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences

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. Positive electricity tends to produce negative electricity in a body near to it, and _vice versâ_, the effect being greater as the distance diminishes. This power which electricity possesses of causing an opposite electrical state in its vicinity is called induction. A Leyden jar, for example, or glass jar coated half way up both outside and in with tin foil, when charged with positive electricity, immediately induces negative electricity on the tin foil outside. Notwithstanding their strong mutual attraction they are prevented from coalescing by the glass, which is a non-conductor; but if the tin inside and out be connected by a conducting wire they instantly unite. When a body in either electric state is presented to a neutral one, its tendency in consequence of the law of induction is to disturb the condition of the neutral body by inducing electricity contrary to its own in the adjacent side, and therefore an electrical state similar to its own in the remote part. Hence the neutrality of the second body is destroyed by the action of the first, and the adjacent parts of the two, having now opposite electricities, will attract each other. The attraction between electrified and unelectrified substances is a consequence of the altered state of their molecules. Induction depends upon the facility with which the equilibrium of the neutral body can be overcome, a facility which is proportional to its conducting power. Consequently the attraction exerted by an electrified substance upon another substance previously neutral will be much more energetic if the latter be a conductor than if it be a non-conductor.