As only direct currents can, in air at a normal pressure, traverse
the break through which the induction spark passes, the aureola that
surrounds it may be considered as being exactly in the same conditions
as a voltaic arc, and, consequently, as representing an extensible
conductor traversed by a current flowing in a definite direction. Such
a conductor is consequently susceptible of being influenced by all the
external reactions that can be exerted upon a current; only, by reason
of its mobility, the conductor may possibly give way to the action
exerted upon the current traversing it, and undergo deformations that
are in relation with the laws of Ampere. It is in this manner that I
have explained the different forms that the aureola of the induction
spark assumes when it is submitted to the action of a magnet in the
direction of its axial line, or in that of its equatorial line, or
perpendicular to these latter, or upon the magnetic poles themselves.
Experiments of a very definite kind have not yet been made as to the
nature of the arc produced by induced currents developed in alternating
current machines; but, from the experiments made with electric candles,
we are forced to admit that the current reacts as if it were alternately
reversed through the arc, since the carbons are used up to an equal
degree; and, moreover, Mr. Pilleux's experiments show that effects
analogous to those of induction coils are produced by the reaction of
magnets upon the arc.
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