circuit. Helmholtz, I believe, was the first to give the contact
theory this new form, in his celebrated essay, Ueber die Erhaltung
der Kraft, p. 45.


Chapter 8.

Researches on frictional electricity: induction: conduction:
specific inductive capacity: theory of contiguous particles.

The burst of power which had filled the four preceding years with an
amount of experimental work unparalleled in the history of science
partially subsided in 1835, and the only scientific paper contributed
by Faraday in that year was a comparatively unimportant one, 'On an
improved Form of the Voltaic Battery.' He brooded for a time: his
experiments on electrolysis had long filled his mind; he looked, as
already stated, into the very heart of the electrolyte, endeavouring
to render the play of its atoms visible to his mental eye. He had
no doubt that in this case what is called 'the electric current' was
propagated from particle to particle of the electrolyte; he accepted
the doctrine of decomposition and recomposition which, according to
Grothuss and Davy, ran from electrode to electrode. And the thought
impressed him more and more that ordinary electric induction was
also transmitted and sustained by the action of 'contiguous
particles.'

His first great paper on frictional electricity was sent to the
Royal Society on November 30, 1837. We here find him face to face
with an idea which beset his mind throughout his whole subsequent
life,--the idea of action at a distance. It perplexed and