Page:Hamel Telegraph history 1859.djvu/40

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38

physicien de Trente, a reconnu que le galvanisme faisait décliner l’aiguille aimantée.”

Oersted was in Paris in 1802 and 1803, and it appears from the book of Aldini that Oersted, at the time he finished it, was still in communication with him, for he says at the end (page 376), he had not been able to add the information received from Oersted, Doctor of the University at Copenhagen, about the galvanic labours of scientific men in that country, nor that relating to new apparatus invented by himself. In 1813 Oersted had been again in Paris.

Who would suppose that Oersted did not know everything contained in Aldini’s book, in which even the index points to Romagnosi’s discovery in the following words: “Romanesi a fait des tentatives sur l’aiguille aimantée, page 191”?

For Izarn’s “Manuel” of 1805, above quoted, the mention of Romagnosi’s discovery is evidently taken from Aldini’s book of 1804. The words there are: “D’après

    vous me permites d’en développer devant vous les principales expériences au milieu des vastes occupations militaires et politiques dont vous étiez environné. Le souvenir de cette époque honorable m’enhardit à vous dédier cet ouvrage.”