Page:A history of the theories of aether and electricity. Whittacker E.T. (1910).pdf/118

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Galvanism, From Galvani to Ohm.

conductivity inherent in the conductor and on another variable which bears to electricity the same relation that temperature bears to heat; and, moreover, it was realized that this latter variable is the link connecting the theory of currents with the older theory of electrostatics. These principles were a sufficient foundation for future progress; and much of the work which was published in the second quarter of the century was no more than the natural development of the principles laid down by Ohm.[1]

It is painful to relate that the discoverer had long to wait before the merits of his great achievement were officially recognized. Twenty-two years after the publication of the memoir on the galvanic circuit, he was promoted to a university professorship; this he held for the five years which remained until his death in 1854.

  1. Ohm's theory was confirmed experimentally by several investigators, among whom may be mentioned Gustav Theodor Fechner (b. 1801, d. 1887) (Maassbestimmungen über die Galvanische Kette, Leipzig, 1831), and Charles Wheatstone (b. 1802, d. 1875) (Phil. Trans., 1843, p. 303).