{"id":35,"date":"2025-02-24T16:07:57","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T16:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sebstack.com\/?page_id=35"},"modified":"2025-03-01T11:58:57","modified_gmt":"2025-03-01T11:58:57","slug":"oliver-lodge","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sebstack.com\/index.php\/oliver-lodge\/","title":{"rendered":"Oliver Lodge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Bringing <em>Modern Views of Electricity<\/em> into the Digital Age<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve been working on digitizing <em>Modern Views of Electricity<\/em> by <strong>Sir Oliver Lodge<\/strong>, a book that takes a deep look at early ideas about <strong>electricity, energy flow, and inertia<\/strong>. The goal is to make it more <strong>accessible and readable for modern audiences<\/strong>, fixing spelling mistakes, cleaning up messy math, and structuring it better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This isn\u2019t just about preservation\u2014it\u2019s about making <strong>Lodge\u2019s ideas easier to explore in today\u2019s AI-driven world<\/strong>. The way we study historical scientific texts is changing, and I want this book to be part of that shift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Did Electricity Have Inertia? Early Scientists Thought So<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the most interesting parts of the book is Lodge\u2019s discussion on <strong>inertia in electricity<\/strong>. Back then, some scientists thought that <strong>electric current might behave like a moving fluid<\/strong>, meaning it would take time to start or stop, just like water in a pipe. If that were true, we should see signs of <strong>momentum<\/strong> when switching currents on and off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Scientists, including <strong>Clerk Maxwell<\/strong>, looked for this effect by testing whether an electrical coil with a current would behave like a <strong>gyroscope<\/strong>, resisting movement. But nothing like that was ever found\u2014electricity doesn\u2019t seem to have <strong>mechanical inertia<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That said, Lodge points out that there is still something <strong>like<\/strong> inertia in electrical circuits. When a circuit is broken suddenly, a spark appears because the current <strong>doesn\u2019t stop instantly<\/strong>\u2014it \u201cbursts through\u201d the gap with energy. These effects, once called <strong>extra-currents<\/strong>, are now explained by <strong>self-induction<\/strong> and electromagnetic fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Poynting\u2019s Discovery: Energy Doesn\u2019t Travel Inside Wires<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Another big shift in thinking came from <strong>John Henry Poynting<\/strong>, who showed that electrical energy <strong>doesn\u2019t actually flow through wires at all<\/strong>\u2014it moves <strong>through the space around them<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before Poynting\u2019s work, most people assumed that electricity traveled through conductors like water through a pipe. But in reality, the <strong>electric and magnetic fields around the wire<\/strong> are what guide energy. The wire is just there to provide the structure\u2014the real action is happening in the surrounding space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This was a <strong>huge change<\/strong> in how scientists thought about electricity. It helped move away from the idea of electricity as a physical substance and towards what we now understand as <strong>electromagnetic fields and waves<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why Digitize This Book?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Lodge\u2019s work captures a time when <strong>scientists were still figuring out the basics of electromagnetism<\/strong>. Some of the ideas turned out to be wrong, others became the foundation of modern electrical engineering. But either way, these early discussions <strong>still matter<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By <strong>digitizing this book<\/strong>, I want to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Make it easier to read and explore<\/strong>, especially for people who aren\u2019t used to old-style scientific writing.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Fix messy math and formatting<\/strong>, so the equations make sense.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Preserve the original ideas<\/strong>, while making them clearer for today\u2019s researchers and students.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s something exciting about looking at these old debates with fresh eyes. With today\u2019s technology\u2014AI, simulations, and advanced electromagnetic research\u2014we can re-examine these ideas in ways Lodge and his peers never could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What\u2019s Next?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m planning to keep working through <em>Modern Views of Electricity<\/em>, cleaning up more sections and making them available in a format that works for modern research and education. If you\u2019re interested in historical electromagnetism, this book is worth a read\u2014it shows how <strong>scientific ideas evolve<\/strong> and why we should never take today\u2019s theories for granted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have thoughts, let me know! Let\u2019s bring this classic into the 21st century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Electric Inertia? Oliver Lodge\" width=\"625\" height=\"469\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Er3kVoFNdBs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Thirty-Eight<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>RETURNING<\/strong> now to the general case of conduction, without regard to the special manner of it, we must notice that, if a current of electricity were anything of the nature of a material flow, there would probably be a certain amount of inertia connected with it; so that to start a current with a finite force would take a little time; and the stoppage of a current would also have either to be gradual or else violent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is well known that if water is stagnant in a pipe it cannot be quite suddenly set in motion; and again, if it be in motion, it can only be suddenly stopped by the exercise of very considerable force, which jars and sometimes bursts the pipe. The impetus of running water is utilized in the water-ram. It must naturally occur, therefore, to ask whether any analogous phenomena are experienced with electricity; and the answer is that analogous phenomena are very conspicuous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A current does not start instantaneously: it takes a certain time\u2014though usually a very short time\u2014to rise to its full strength; and when started it tends to persist, so that if its circuit be suddenly broken, it refuses to stop quite suddenly, and bursts through the introduced insulating partition with violence and heat. It is this ram or impetus of the electric current which causes the spark seen on breaking a circuit; and the more sudden the breakage, the more violent is the spark apt to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The two effects\u2014the delay at making circuit, and the momentum at breaking circuit\u2014used to be called extra-current effects, but they are now more commonly spoken of as <strong>manifestations of self-induction<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We shall understand them better directly; meanwhile, they appear to be direct consequences of the <strong>inertia of electricity<\/strong>; and certainly, if electricity were a fluid possessing inertia, it would behave to a superficial observer just in this way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Thirty-Nine<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>But if an electric current really possessed inertia, as a stream of water does, it would exhibit itself not only by these effects but also mechanically. A conducting coil delicately suspended might experience a <strong>rotary kick<\/strong> every time a current was started or stopped in it; and a coil in which a steady current is maintained should behave like a <strong>top or gyrostat<\/strong> and resist any force tending to deflect its plane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Clerk Maxwell has carefully looked for this latter form of momentum effect and found none. He took a bar electromagnet, mounted it on <strong>gimbals<\/strong> so that it was free to rotate if it wished, and then spun it rapidly about an axis perpendicular to the magnetic axis. If there had been the slightest <strong>gyrostatic action<\/strong>, the magnet would have rotated about the third perpendicular axis. But it did nothing of the kind. One may say, in fact, that nothing like momentum has yet been observed in an electric current through solids or liquids by any mechanical mode of examination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a now well-known <strong>exception in the case of gases<\/strong>; but it is safe to say that a coil or whirl of electricity does not behave in the least like a top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Section One Hundred and Eighty-Five<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>I have looked for the effect in another way suggested by Maxwell, namely, by starting and stopping a current in a freely suspended coil and watching for <strong>recoil kicks<\/strong> at the instants of varying current strength. Terrestrial magnetism and the reaction between fixed and movable parts of the circuit caused spurious effects; but when these were reduced to a minimum, by the thick soft-iron case of a marine galvanometer and other suitable precautions, no certain residual effect due to change of momentum could be perceived. The experiments were by no means final, but they were sufficient to show that to detect any possibly existent effect of the kind, considerable refinement must be employed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Suppose, however, that highly refined experiments directed to the same object still gave a <strong>negative result<\/strong>, would that prove that a current has no momentum of any kind? Not necessarily. It might be taken as suggesting that an electric current consists really of <strong>two equal flows in contrary directions<\/strong>, so that mechanically they <strong>neutralize one another completely<\/strong>, while electrically\u2014that is, in the <strong>phenomena of self-induction or extra-current<\/strong>\u2014they add their effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or it might mean merely that the momentum was <strong>too minute<\/strong> to be so observed. Or, again, the whole thing\u2014the appearance of inertia in some experiments and the absence of it in others\u2014may have to be explained in some altogether less simple manner, to which we will proceed to lead up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Condition of the Medium Near a Current<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Forty<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>So far we have considered the flow of electricity as a phenomenon occurring solely inside conductors, just as a flow of water through pipes is a phenomenon occurring solely inside them. But a number of <strong>remarkable facts<\/strong> are known which completely <strong>negate this view<\/strong> of the matter. Something is no doubt passing along conductors when a current flows, but the disturbance is <strong>not confined<\/strong> to the conductor; on the contrary, <strong>it spreads more or less throughout surrounding space<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The facts which prove this have necessarily no hydraulic analogue but must be treated <strong>suorum generum<\/strong>, and they are as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A <strong>compass needle<\/strong> anywhere near an electric current is <strong>permanently deflected<\/strong> so long as the current lasts.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Two <strong>electric currents<\/strong> attract or repel one another, according as they are in the same or opposite directions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A <strong>circuit<\/strong> in which a current is flowing tends to <strong>enlarge itself<\/strong> so as to enclose the greatest possible area.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A circuit conveying a current in a <strong>magnetic field<\/strong> tends either to enlarge or to shrink or to turn partway around, according to the aspect it presents to the field.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Conductors<\/strong> in the neighbourhood of an electric circuit experience <strong>momentary electric disturbances<\/strong> every time a current in it is started or stopped or varied in strength.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <strong>same thing happens<\/strong> even with a circuit conveying a steady current if the <strong>distance<\/strong> between it and a conductor is made to vary.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <strong>inertia-like effects<\/strong> of self-induction, or extra-currents, can be almost <strong>abolished<\/strong> in a covered wire by <strong>doubling it closely on itself<\/strong>, or better by <strong>laying a direct and return ribbon face to face<\/strong>; whereas they may be <strong>intensified<\/strong> by making the circuit <strong>enclose a large area<\/strong>, more by <strong>coiling it up tightly<\/strong> into a close coil, and still more by <strong>putting a piece of iron inside the coil<\/strong> so formed.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Nothing like any of these effects is observable with <strong>currents of water<\/strong>; and they <strong>prove<\/strong> that the <strong>phenomena connected with the current<\/strong>, so far from being <strong>confined to the wire<\/strong>, spread out into space and affect bodies <strong>at a considerable distance<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Forty-One<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Nearly all this class of phenomena were <strong>discovered by Ampere and Faraday<\/strong>, and were called by the latter <strong>current-induction<\/strong>. According to his view, the <strong>dielectric medium<\/strong> round a conducting circuit is <strong>strained and subject to stresses<\/strong>, just as is the same medium round an <strong>electrically charged body<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The one is called an <strong>electrostatic strain<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The other is called an <strong>electromagnetic or electro-kinetic strain<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>But whereas <strong>electrostatic phenomena<\/strong> occur <strong>solely in the medium<\/strong>\u2014conductors being mere <strong>breaks in it<\/strong>, interrupters of its continuity, at whose surface charge effects occur but whose <strong>substance is completely screened from disturbance<\/strong>\u2014that is <strong>not the case<\/strong> with <strong>electro-kinetic phenomena<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It would be just as <strong>erroneous<\/strong> to conceive <strong>electro-kinetic phenomena<\/strong> as occurring <strong>solely in the insulating medium<\/strong> as it would be to think of them as occurring <strong>solely in the conducting wires<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fact is, <strong>they occur in both<\/strong>\u2014not only <strong>at the surface of the wires<\/strong>, like electrostatic effects, but <strong>all through their substance<\/strong>. This is proved by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Conductivity increases<\/strong> in simple proportion with sectional area.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Every part of a conductor <strong>gets hot<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In the case of <strong>liquids<\/strong>, by their <strong>decomposition<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>But the equally manifest facts of <strong>current attraction and current induction<\/strong> prove that the effect of the current is <strong>felt throughout the surrounding medium<\/strong> as well, and that its intensity <strong>depends on the nature of that medium<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are thus wholly <strong>prevented<\/strong> from ascribing the <strong>phenomenon of self-induction<\/strong> or <strong>extra-current<\/strong> to simple and straightforward <strong>inertia of electricity in a wire<\/strong>, like that of water in a pipe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sir Oliver Lodge 1907  Modern Views of Electricity Inroduction and Chapter1\" width=\"625\" height=\"469\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tww1RF6l1gg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bringing Modern Views of Electricity into the Digital Age I\u2019ve been working on digitizing Modern Views of Electricity by Sir Oliver Lodge, a book that takes a deep look at early ideas about electricity, energy flow, and inertia. The goal is to make it more accessible and readable for modern audiences, fixing spelling mistakes, cleaning [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-35","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sebstack.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sebstack.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sebstack.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sebstack.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sebstack.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sebstack.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80,"href":"https:\/\/sebstack.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35\/revisions\/80"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sebstack.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}