FROM THE HISTORY OF PHYSICS

THE DISCOVERY OF THE CONNECTION BETWEEN ELECTRICAL AND MAGNETIC PHENOMENA BY I. A. DVIGUBSKY

V. I. Lebedev

The more we study the works of Russian physicists of the past, the more and more convinced we become that they were pioneers in the development of many fields of our science.

The attention of the scientific community should be drawn to the fact that the connection between electricity and magnetism was first established experimentally by the professor of Moscow University Ivan Alekseevich Dvigubsky in 1808.

I. A. Dvigubsky described his experiments in his Physics as follows: “If one end of the needle is designated by the letter \(A\), and the other by the letter \(B\), then if we attach one end \(A\) to the outer coating of a Leyden jar and then place one end of the discharger against the end \(B\) of the needle, and bring its other end up to the conductor [i.e., to the inner conductor of the jar.—V. L.], then the needle will become magnetized when an electric spark passes through it.”

“If now, with the very same needle, the same experiment is repeated, only in such a way that the end of the needle \(B\) is attached to the outer coating of the Leyden jar, then the needle will reverse its poles…”

This was the first step in the history of physics establishing the connection between electricity and magnetism. It was carried out 12 years before the generally known experiments of Arago (who passed a current through a needle) and Oersted (who observed the action of a current on a magnetic needle), performed in 1820. I. A. Dvigubsky did not succeed in detecting the oscillatory character of the electric discharge in these experiments.

Thus, it may be asserted that the first experiments lying at the foundation of the doctrine of electromagnetism were carried out in Russia.

In this connection it will not be superfluous to recall certain facts from the life of I. A. Dvigubsky.

I. A. Dvigubsky was born in 1772 in the town of Korocha, Kursk Governorate; he studied first at the Kharkov Collegium and then at Moscow University. He graduated from it with a gold medal; in 1802 he received the scholarly degree of Doctor of Medicine, and a few years later was promoted to “ordinary professor.” He held the chair of physics in the period 1813–1827, after the death of another outstanding Russian physicist, P. I. Strakhov.

I. A. Dvigubsky belonged to that group of scholars whose interests were extraordinarily diverse. He was a member of the Moscow Society of Naturalists, the Moscow Physico-Medical Society, the Moscow Agricultural Society, the Economic Society, and a number of others, and was also a member of several foreign societies. At Moscow University he for a time lectured on “Technology” (1808); then (in 1813), as has already been indicated, he took the chair of physics, and from 1827 began to lecture on botany.

In all the sciences mentioned, Prof. Dvigubsky was a major specialist. In 1807 he published The Elementary Foundations of Technology; in 1836–1839, the Lexicon of Urban and Rural Economy. In 1820–1829 Dvigubsky published the journal New Magazine of Natural History, Physics, Chemistry, and Economic Information. Some of his articles were published in the Proceedings of the Paris Academic Society, in the Göttingen Botanical Society, and elsewhere.

Unfortunately, there is still no monograph devoted to the activity of this remarkable Russian scholar, who always said:

“Study your fatherland, and then you will be a guide for others.”

I. A. Dvigubsky died in Moscow on 30 December 1839, in the 68th year of his life.