Reprint of Papers on Electrostatics and Magnetism

Abstract

TO obtain any adequate idea of the present state of electro-magnetic science we must study these papers of Sir W. Thomson's. It is true that a great deal of admirable work has been done, chiefly by the Germans, both in analytical calculation and in experimental researches, by methods which are independent of, or at least different from, those developed in these papers, and it is the glory of true science that all legitimate methods must lead to the same final results. But if we are to count the gain to science by the number and value of the ideas developed in the course of the inquiry, which preserve the results of former thought in a form capable of being employed in future investigation, we must place Sir W. Thomson's contributions to electro-magnetic science on the very highest level.

Reprint of Papers on Electrostatics and Magnetism.

By Sir W. Thomson, Fellow of St. Peter's College, Cambridge, and Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Glasgow. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1872.)