Michael Faraday

Name: The Forces of Matter — The Correlation of the Physical Forces
Author: Michael Faraday

The Forces of Matter — The Correlation of the Physical Forces

Summary

“The Forces of Matter — The Correlation of the Physical Forces”, is a work by Michael Faraday. It explores elements such as zinc, platinum and wires.

Quotes from The Forces of Matter — The Correlation of the Physical Forces (Michael Faraday)

Michael Faraday, The Forces of Matter — The Correlation of the Physical Forces

“ Thus you have seen the force of electricity acting in other ways than in attracting; you have also seen it combine matters together or disunite them by means of its action on the chemical force; and in this case, therefore, you have an instance in which these two powers are related. But we have other and deeper relations than these; we have not merely to see how it is that one power affects another—how the force of heat affects chemical affinity, and so forth, but we must try and comprehend what relation they bear to each other, and how these powers may be changed one into the other ”

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Source: Wikisource

Michael Faraday, The Forces of Matter — The Correlation of the Physical Forces

“ The platinum has no power of itself to reduce that metal from that fluid, but it has, in some mysterious way, received this power by its contact with the metal zinc, Here, then, you see a strange transfer of chemical force from one metal to another; the chemical force from the zinc is transferred and made over to the platinum by the mere association of the two metals. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Michael Faraday, The Forces of Matter — The Correlation of the Physical Forces

“ I want you to perceive, if possible, that this very spark and the heat it produces (for there is heat) is neither more nor less than the chemical force of the zinc—its very force carried along wires and conveyed to this place. I am about to take a portion of the zinc and burn it in oxygen gas for the sake of showing you the kind of light produced by the actual combustion in oxygen gas of some of this metal. [A tassel of zinc-foil was ignited at a spirit lamp and introduced into a jar of oxygen, when it burnt with a brilliant light.] ”

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Source: Wikisource

Michael Faraday, The Forces of Matter — The Correlation of the Physical Forces

“ Instead of having a machine which we are obliged to turn for a long time together, we have here a chemical power which sends forth the spark; and it is wonderful and beautiful to see how this spark is carried about through these wires. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Michael Faraday, The Forces of Matter — The Correlation of the Physical Forces

“ I am using what we call a Grove’s voltaic battery, in which one metal is zinc and the other platinum; and I have as many as forty pairs of these plates all exercising their force at once in sending the whole amount of chemical power there evolved through these wires under the floor and up to these two rods coming through the table. We need do no more than just bring these two ends in contact, when the spark shows us what power is present; and what a strange thing it is to see that this force is brought away from the battery behind me, and carried along through these wires! ”

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Source: Wikisource

Michael Faraday, The Forces of Matter — The Correlation of the Physical Forces

“ You see all I have to do is to hold the piece of zinc at the side of the flame, so as to let it get heated, and yet to allow the air which is flowing into the flame from all sides to have access to it; there is the piece of zinc burning just like a piece of wood, only brighter. A part of the zinc is going up into the air in the form of that white smoke, and part is falling down on to the table. This, then, is the action of chemical affinity exerted between the zinc and the oxygen of the air. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Michael Faraday, The Forces of Matter — The Correlation of the Physical Forces

“ I might take, instead of the platinum, a piece of copper or of silver, and it would have no action of its own on this solution, but the moment the zinc was introduced and touched the other metal, then the action would take place, and it would become covered with copper. Now is not this most wonderful and beautiful to see? We still have the identical chemical force of the particles of zinc acting, and yet, in some strange manner, we have power to make that chemical force, or something it produces, travel from one place to another ”

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Source: Wikisource

Michael Faraday, The Forces of Matter — The Correlation of the Physical Forces

“ Philosophers had been suspecting this affinity for a long time, and had long had great hopes of success; for in the pursuit of science we first start with hopes and expectations; these we realize and establish, never again to be lost, and upon them we found new expectations of farther discoveries, and so go on pursuing, realizing, establishing, and founding new hopes again and again. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Michael Faraday, The Forces of Matter — The Correlation of the Physical Forces

“ I hope that the insight which you have here gained into some of the laws by which the universe is governed, may be the occasion of some among you turning your attention to these subjects; for what study is there more fitted to the mind of man than that of the physical sciences? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Michael Faraday, The Forces of Matter — The Correlation of the Physical Forces

“ I have a few wires here which are not combustible, and I am going to take one of them, a small platinum wire, and suspend it between these two rods which are connected with the battery, and when contact is made at the battery see what heat we get. Is not that beautiful? It is a complete bridge of power. There is metallic connection all the way round in this arrangement, and where I have inserted the platinum, which offers some resistance to the passage of the force, you see what an amount of heat is evolved; this is the heat which the zinc would give if burnt in oxygen ”

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Source: Wikisource

Michael Faraday, The Forces of Matter — The Correlation of the Physical Forces

“ I have merely brought the end of the wires into the solution of indigo, and the power of electricity has come through these wires and made itself evident by its chemical action. There is also another curious thing to be noticed now we are dealing with the chemistry of electricity, which is, that the chemical power which destroys the color is only due to the action on one side. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Michael Faraday, The Forces of Matter — The Correlation of the Physical Forces

“ Now I want to show you that this power is still chemical affinity; that if we call the power which is evolved at this point heat, or electricity, or any other name referring to its source, or the way in which it travels, we still shall find it to be chemical action. Here is a colored liquid which can show by its change of color the effects of chemical action; I will pour part of it into this glass, and you will find that these wires have a very strong action. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Michael Faraday, The Forces of Matter — The Correlation of the Physical Forces

“ I have merely to connect these by means of wires to the opposite ends of the battery, and bring the points in contact. See what an exhibition of force we have! We have exhausted the air so that the charcoal can not burn, and therefore the light you see is really the burning of the zinc in the cells behind me; there is no disappearance of the carbon, although we have that glorious electric light ”

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Source: Wikisource

Michael Faraday, The Forces of Matter — The Correlation of the Physical Forces

“ Make the wires to diverge so as to form a sort of cone, and, having filled the bottle quite full of a solution of sugar of lead, insert the wires and cork, and seal it down, so as to perfectly exclude the air. In a short time the metallic lead will begin to crystallize around the divergent wires, and form a beautiful object. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Michael Faraday, The Forces of Matter — The Correlation of the Physical Forces

“ So ready is the iron to burn, that it takes, under certain circumstances, even less time to catch fire than gunpowder. [As soon as the gunpowder was dry, Mr. Anderson handed it to the lecturer, who applied a lighted match to it, when a sudden flash showed how large a proportion of gunpowder had escaped combustion when falling through the flame of alcohol.] ”

Michael Faraday

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Quotes from The Forces of Matter — The Correlation of the Physical Forces (Michael Faraday)

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