Shelford Bidwell

“ Magnetic Moment and Magnetization.—The moment, M, M or M, of a uniformly and longitudinally magnetized bar-magnet is the product of its length into the strength of one of its poles; it is the moment of the couple acting on the magnet when placed in a field of unit intensity with its axis perpendicular to the direction of the field. If l is the length of the magnet, M=ml. The action of a magnet at a distance which is great compared with the length of the magnet depends solely upon its moment; so also does the action which the magnet experiences when placed in a uniform field. ”

“ A well-known example of hysteresis is presented by the case of permanent magnets. If a bar of hard steel is placed in a strong magnetic field, a certain intensity of magnetization is induced in the bar; but when the strength of the field is afterwards reduced to zero, the magnetization does not entirely disappear. That portion which is permanently retained, and which may amount to considerably more than one-half, is called the residual magnetization. The ratio of the residual magnetization to its previous maximum value measures the retentiveness, or retentivity, of the metal. ”

“ According to W. E. Weber’s theory, the molecules of a ferromagnetic metal are small permanent magnets, the axes of which under ordinary conditions are turned indifferently in every direction, so that no magnetic polarity is exhibited by the metal as a whole; a magnetic force acting upon the metal tends to turn the axes of the little magnets in one direction, and thus the entire piece acquires the properties of a magnet. ”

“ From experiments of both classes it appears that for a given field there is a certain value of the load for which the magnetization is a maximum, the maximum occurring at a smaller load the stronger the field. In very strong fields the maximum may even disappear altogether, the effect of the smallest stress being to diminish the magnetization; on the other hand, with very weak fields the maximum may not have been reached with the greatest load that the wire can support without permanent deformation. ”

“ Until 1820 all the artificial magnets in practical use derived their virtue, directly or indirectly, from the natural magnets found in the earth: it is now recognized that the source of all magnetism, not excepting that of the magnetic ore itself, is electricity, and it is usual to have direct recourse to electricity for producing magnetization, without the intermediary of the magnetic ore. ”

“ Those substances which are attracted, or rather which tend, like iron, to move from weaker to stronger parts of the magnetic field, are termed paramagnetic; those which are repelled, or tend to move from stronger to weaker parts of the field, are termed diamagnetic. Between the ferromagnetics and the paramagnetics there is an enormous gap. The maximum magnetic susceptibility of iron is half a million times greater than that of liquid oxygen, one of the strongest paramagnetic substances known. ”

“ Even a permanent magnet is susceptible of induction, its polarity becoming thereby strengthened, weakened, or possibly reversed. If one pole of a strong magnet is presented to the like pole of a weaker one, there will be repulsion so long as the two are separated by a certain minimum distance. At shorter distances the magnetism induced in the weaker magnet will be stronger than its permanent magnetism, and there will be attraction; two magnets with their like poles in actual contact will always cling together unless the like poles are of exactly equal strength. ”

“ Steel is much more retentive of magnetism than any ordinary iron, and some form of steel is now always used for making artificial magnets. Magnetism may be imparted to a bar of hardened steel by stroking it several times from end to end, always in the same direction, with one of the poles of a magnet. ”

“ The ballistic method is largely employed for determining the relation of induction to magnetizing force in samples of the iron and steel used in the manufacture of electrical machinery, and especially for the observation of hysteresis effects. The sample may have the form of a closed ring, upon which are wound the induction coil and another coil for taking the magnetizing current; or it may consist of a long straight rod or wire which can be slipped into a magnetizing coil such as is used in magnetometric experiments, the induction coil being wound upon the middle of the wire. ”

“ Supposing Ewing’s hypothesis to be correct, it is clear that if the magnetization of a piece of iron were reversed by a strong rotating field instead of by a field alternating through zero, the loss of energy by hysteresis should be little or nothing, for the molecules would rotate with the field and no unstable movements would be possible. ”

“ The effects of pulling stress may be observed either when the wire is stretched by a constant load while the magnetizing force is varied, or when the magnetizing force is kept constant while the load is varied. In the latter case the first application of stress is always attended by an increase—often a very great one—of the magnetization, whether the field is weak or strong, but after a load has been put on and taken off several times the changes of magnetization become cyclic. ”

“ Bismuth, the strongest of the diamagnetics, has a negative susceptibility which is numerically 20 times less than that of liquid oxygen.
Many of the physical properties of a metal are affected by magnetization. The dimensions of a piece of iron, for example, its elasticity, its thermo-electric power and its electric conductivity are all changed under the influence of magnetism. On the other hand, the magnetic properties of a substance are affected by such causes as mechanical stress and changes of temperature. ”

“ Iron and its alloys, including the various kinds of steel, though exhibiting magnetic phenomena in a pre-eminent degree, are not the only substances capable of magnetization. Nickel and cobalt are also strongly magnetic, and in 1903 the interesting discovery was made by F. Heusler that an alloy consisting of copper, aluminium and manganese (Heusler’s alloy) , possesses magnetic qualities comparable with those of iron. Practically the metals iron, nickel and cobalt, and some of their alloys and compounds constitute a class by themselves and are called ferromagnetic substances. ”

“ And again if a piece of steel is weighed in a delicate balance before and after magnetization, no change whatever in its weight can be detected; there is consequently no upward or downward resultant force due to magnetization; the contrary parallel forces acting upon the poles of the magnet are equal, constituting a couple, which may tend to turn the body, but not to propel it. ”

“ One or more of the electrons may be detached from the system by a finite force, the number so detachable depending on the valency of the atom; if the atom loses an electron, it becomes positively electrified; if it receives additional electrons, it is negatively electrified. The process of electric conduction in metals consists in the movement of detached electrons, and many other phenomena, both electrical and thermal, can be more or less completely explained by their agency. ”

“ With suitable arrangements of iron and coil and a sufficiently strong current, the intensity of the temporary magnetization may be very high, and electromagnets capable of lifting weights of several tons are in daily use in engineering works (see Electromagnetism) . If the bar inserted into the coil is of hardened steel instead of iron, the magnetism will be less intense, but a larger proportion of it will be retained after the current has been cut off. Steel magnets of great strength and of any convenient form may be prepared either in this manner or by treatment with an electromagnet ”

“ Electric Circuit.—If a coil of insulated wire is suspended so that it is in stable equilibrium when its plane is parallel to the direction of a magnetic field, the transmission of a known electric current through the coil will cause it to be deflected through an angle which is a function of the field intensity. ”

“ In practice it is usual to standardize or “calibrate” the galvanometer by causing a known change of induction to take place within a standard coil connected with it, and noting the corresponding deflection on the galvanometer scale. Let s be the area of a single turn of the standard coil, n the number of its turns, and r the resistance of the circuit of which the coil forms part; and let S, N and R be the corresponding constants for a coil which is to be used in an experiment. ”

“ Where the lines are crowded together, as in the neighbourhood of the poles, the force is greater (or the field is stronger) than where they are more widely separated; hence the strength of a field at any point can be accurately specified by reference to the concentration of the lines. The lines presented to the eye by the scattered filings are too vague and ill-defined to give a satisfactory indication of the field-strength (see Faraday, Experimental Researches, § 3237) though they show its direction clearly enough. ”

“ The other phenomenon is mentioned by Greek and Roman writers of the 1st century: a piece of iron, when brought into contact with a magnet, or even held near one, itself becomes “inductively” magnetized, and acquires the power of lifting iron. If the iron is soft and fairly pure, it loses its attractive property when removed from the neighbourhood of the magnet; if it is hard, some of the induced magnetism is permanently retained, and the piece becomes an artificial magnet. ”

“ For a given strength, therefore, the potential depends solely upon the boundary of the shell, and the potential outside a closed shell is everywhere zero. A magnet which can be divided into simple magnetic shells, either closed or having their edges on the surface of the magnet, is called a lamellar magnet, and the magnetism is said to be distributed lamellarly. ”

“ There are strong reasons for believing that magnetism is a phenomenon involving rotation, and as early as 1876 Rowland, carrying out an experiment which had been proposed by Maxwell, showed that a revolving electric charge produced the same magnetic effects as a current. ”

“ When the load on a hardened wire is gradually increased, the maximum value of I is found to correspond with a greater stress than when the load is gradually diminished, this being an effect of hysteresis. Analogous changes are observed in the residual magnetization which remains after the wire has been subjected to fields of different strength. The effects of longitudinal pressure are opposite to those of traction; when the cyclic condition has been reached, pressure reduces the magnetization of iron in weak fields and increases it in strong fields (Ewing, Magnetic Induction, 1900, 223) . ”

“ No substance has yet been discovered having a negative susceptibility sufficiently great to render the permeability (=1 + 4πκ) negative.
Magnetic Circuit.—The circulation of magnetic induction or flux through magnetic and non-magnetic substances, such as iron and air, is in many respects analogous to that of an electric current through good and bad conductors. Just as the lines of flow of an electric current all pass in closed curves through the battery or other generator, so do all the lines of induction pass in closed curves through the magnet or magnetizing coil. ”

“ Some of the principal phenomena of magnetism may be demonstrated with very little apparatus; much may be done with a small bar-magnet, a pocket compass and a few ounces of iron filings. Steel articles, such as knitting or sewing needles and pieces of flat spring, may be readily magnetized by stroking them with the bar-magnet; after having produced magnetism in any number of other bodies, the magnet will have lost nothing of its own virtue. The compass needle is a little steel magnet balanced upon a pivot ”

“ If the structure of the molecule is so perfectly symmetrical that, in the absence of any external field, the resultant magnetic moment of the circulating electrons is zero, then the application of a field, by accelerating the right-handed (negative) revolutions, and retarding those which are left-handed, will induce in the substance a resultant magnetization opposite in direction to the field itself ”

“ Directing Couple acting on an Elongated Body.—In a non-uniform field every volume-element of the body tends to move towards regions of greater or less force according as the substance is paramagnetic or diamagnetic, and the behaviour of the whole mass will be determined chiefly by the tendency of its constituent elements. For this reason a thin bar suspended at its centre of gravity between a pair of magnetic poles will, if paramagnetic, set itself along the line joining the poles, where the field is strongest, and if diamagnetic, transversely to the line. ”

“ The magnetic flux per square centimetre at any point (B, B, or B) is briefly called the induction, or, especially by electrical engineers, the flux-density. The direction of magnetic induction may be indicated by lines of induction; a line of induction is always a closed curve, though it may possibly extend to and return from infinity. Lines of induction drawn through every point in the contour of a small surface form a re-entrant tube bounded by lines of induction; such a tube is called a tube of induction. ”

“ In the middle part of a rod which has a length of 400 or 500 diameters the effect of the ends is insensible; but for many experiments the condition of endlessness may be best secured by giving the metal the shape of a ring of uniform section, the magnetic field being produced by an electric current through a coil of wire evenly wound round the ring. ”