Jan Henri van Swinden (1746-1823) [Wikipedia] Relationships between Electricity and Magnetism

1784

The ancient Greeks did not distinguish between the force of rubbed amber to attract dust (electrostatic force) and the magnetite (lodestone, or loadstone) to attract iron (magnetic force). Later, Caldano and Gilbert pointed out that there were differences in electrostatic and magnetic forces and these forces were treated separately. Progress of researches on electricity and magnetism, however, reversed such ideas of electricity and magnetism. Researchers gradually came to recognize similarity between these two forces. Jan Henri van Swinden compiled past references regarding electricity and magnetism and discussed the similarity between electricity and magnetism. However, he made the negative conclusion that electricity and magnetism were different in principle. Later, this conclusion will be overturned by Oersted's discovery and Ampère's theory. Recueil de Mémoires sur l'Analogie de l'électricité et du magnétisme. Tome Premier (ed.) Jan Hendrik van Swinden (La Haye, Paris, 1784). [Three Volumes] [Archive]