A Report on Electromagnetic Induction

This report discusses briefly the chief fundamental results obtained from the days of Faraday to the present time in studying the electromotive forces ordinarily referred to the domain of electromagnetic induction. Self-induction is first taken up, and the phenomena of self-induction are treated. as essentially identical with the phenomena of inertia in dynamics, according to the idea of Maxwell and the idea originally accepted by Faraday. The only recent fundamental progress has been in studying the inertia of free electrons and other ions, and experiments on this subject are referred to. The motional electromotive force, developed when matter moves in a magnetic field, is next considered, and is derived from Ampère's law on the electron theory. Especial attention is devoted to the motional intensity, and the resulting electric displacement, in insulators, of which nothing has been known until recent years. The induced electromotive force in fixed conductors and insulators arising from the motion or alteration of other systems is next considered, and is expressed both in terms of magnetic flux and in terms of the general vector potential, which refers the phenomena back to the motion of electrons without the magnetic field as intermediary. The relations between the induced and motional electromotive forces are discussed, as well as the relation of the electric displacement produced in certain cases to the hypothesis of the fixed ether.