[Footnote: A paper read at the Society of Telegraph Engineers and
Electricians on the 8th November, 1883]

By WILLOUGHBY SMITH.


In my presidential address, which I had the pleasure of reading before
this society at our first meeting this year, I called attention,
somewhat hurriedly, to the results of a few of my experiments on
induction, and at the same time expressed a hope that at a future date I
might be able to bring them more prominently before you. That date has
now arrived, and my endeavor this evening will be to demonstrate to you
by actual experiment some of what I consider the most important results
obtained. My desire is that all present should see these results, and
with that view I will try when practicable to use a mirror reflecting
galvanometer instead of a telephone. All who have been accustomed to the
use of reflecting galvanometers will readily understand the difficulty,
on account of its delicacy, of doing so where no special arrangements
are provided for its use; but perhaps with a little indulgence on your
part and patience on mine the experiments may be brought to a successful
issue.

[Illustration: VOLTA-ELECTRIC INDUCTION.]

Reliable records extending over hundreds of years show clearly with what
energy and perseverance scientific men in every civilized part of the
world have endeavored to wrest from nature the secret of what is termed
her "phenomena of magnetism," and, as is invariably the case under
similar circumstances, the results of the experiments and reasoning of