IV. On peristaltic induction of electric currents

Abstract

Recent observations on the propagation of electricity through wires in subaqueous and subterranean telegraphic cables have brought to light phenomena of induced electric currents, which, while they are essentially different from the phenomena of what has hitherto been called electro-dynamic induction, are exactly such as might have been anticipated from the well-established theory of electrical equilibrium, had experiment afforded the data of relation between electrostatical and electro-dynamic units wanted for determining what dimensions of wire would be required to render these phenomena sensible to ordinary observation. They present a very perfect analogy with the mutual influences of a number of elastic tubes bound together laterally throughout their lengths, and surrounded and filled with a liquid which is forced through one or more of them, while the others are left with their ends open ( uninsulated ), or stopped ( insulated ), or subjected to any other particular conditions. The hydrostatic pressure applied to force the liquid through any of the tubes will cause them to swell and to press against the others, which will thus, by peristaltic action, compel the liquid contained in them to move, in different parts of them, in one direction or the other.