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A TREATISE
ON
ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM
MAXWELL
Uonfron
MACMILLAN AND CO.
PUBLISHERS TO THE UNIVERSITY OF
Clarendon press Series
A TREATISE
ON
ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM
BY
JAMES CLERK MAXWELL, M.A
LLD. EDIN., P.E.SS. LONDON AND EDINBURGH
HONORARY FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE,
AND PROFESSOR OF EXPERIMENTAL PHYSICS
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
VOL. I
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
[All rights reserved]
v, I
Y\;
4/w>wa. Depti
PREFACE.
THE fact that certain bodies, after being rubbed, appear to attract other bodies, was known to the ancients. In modern times, a great variety of other phenomena have been observed, and have been found to be related to these phenomena of attraction. They have been classed under the name of Electric phe nomena, amber,?i\eKTpov, having been the substance in which they were first described.
Other bodies, particularly the loadstone, and pieces of iron and steel which have been subjected to certain processes, have also been long known to exhibit phe nomena of action at a distance. These phenomena, with others related to them, were found to differ from the electric phenomena, and have been classed under the name of Magnetic phenomena, the loadstone, /zayi^?, being found in the Thessalian Magnesia.
These two classes of phenomena have since been found to be related to each other, and the relations between …