The Express.
London, England, 1850-12-26 00:00:00

MR. WILLIAM STURGEON.

We have the melancholy ta4 of recording the
data of Mr. William Sturgeoo, which took place on Sunday
week at Muenster, where he had for ems yean filled the
office of lecturer on unmet to the Royal Vicuna Gallery of
Practical Science. Mr. Sturgeon was one of those striking
examples which should alornys be carefully held up before
the public of a man working his own way from a very humble
Istation in life to one of twanderableni•Eltial eminence. He
wiss born at Whittington, in the crinkly of Lutustese,dh the
year 1783, sat wee apprentice' by hie parent' toe ebbe.
maker. In 1302 he entered the Westmoreland militia, amd
two ye are lat^r he ted u a private soldier in the Biral
Artillery. While in this corps he devoted hie leisure to
scientific studios, and appeals to have made himself timelier
with all the great facts of electricity and magnetism which
were then opening to the world. (Erred had recently
made his great discovery which resulted in the esteblish-
mint of the sew ',knee of electroneacnetism, at this perio I
*urging the attention of Faraday, Herschel, Arago,
Asinine, end others. Mr. Sturgeon entered co the
inqu,ry, and made himself known to the scientific world of
the me,ropolis by his modification of Ampere's rotatory
cylinder', employed fnr showing haw two eltetrilytid masses
have a tendency to circulate about each other. We are in-
debted to the Manchester Corner for much of the following
sta•ement of the program of Mr. Sturgeon's contribution* to
science,

In 1824, Mr. Sturgeon begs' to give the fruited his in-
vesigetions to the public. In that you no fewer than near
papers of great merit appeared from his pen, on the subjects
of eleetro end thermoelectricity, in the pages of the London
FAilosophicni Magazine.
In 1824, he published is the" Transactions of the Society
of Arta" the desuiption of a complete set of novel *lntro.
magnetic apparatus. The great merit of this apparatus
consisted in the improved adaptation of the magnets, bat
seise, &c . to one another; by mesas of which Mr Sturgeon
wee enabled to perforce, with a 'clink battery of the sin- of
• piat pot :raiment' which had previwudy ',gaited the
lAN of • cumbrous and cad, battery. The Society of Arts
testified their sees. of the important.' of this contribution by
awarding to its author their large silver medal, with a pone
of thirty guineas.
About this time Mr. Sturgeon made his great discovery
of the soft iron electro-magnet; and having observed the
high degree of polarity acquired by a straight bar of iron
on making • current of electricity to circulate around it,
u well as the suddenness with which the direction of
polarity could be reversed by cheeping the direction of the
current, he proceeded to constrict electromagnets on the
same principle, but bent into the (rem of a horse shoe, so
that the pool by being bearish' mar one another could
unonsteate their action on any given obj-et. This sof-
iron demo magnet has entered into the struc'ure of every
form of electric telegraph—end it may be regarded
u the most important addition made by any expelimen-
taint to the science of magnetism. We find Mr. S orison
I. 1830 pal:dollies a pamphlet, entitled " Experiment.l
Researches in Electra-Magnetism, Oelvanises," fie., cos-
t Tieing an extern...live series of original exoerimeits. In this
work he first vinted out the superior dr cts to be derived
from the use of amelgamated lutes of rolled eine in the
voltaic battery. instead of the unprepared cast sine thea in
emend nee. lie prepared his plates by dipping them first
into • dilate solution of acid, to cleanse their surface., and
afterwards plunging them into mercury. lie showed that
plates prepare( in this way do not effervesce in dilute sul-
phuric acid, aa the unprepared plates do; and, in con-
sequence, require to be much less frequently renewed
than the latter • whilst, at the same time, the electric
current produced is much m re intense sail constant. It is
a remarkable lac', that no further improvement has been
effected in the preps/stun of the positive plates of the gales,
nie apparatus, and that Mr. Sturgeon's amalgamated sine
plat a are at the present day employed in every form of ino
proved battery, whether patented or not. In 1836, Mr.
Sturgeon communicated • paper to the Royal Satiety, which
contains the description of a perfectly original magnetic
electrical machine, in which a most ingenious contrivance
was adopted for uniting the reciprocating electric currents
developed, so as to give them one initorm direction.
By this contrivance Mr. Sturgeon succeeded in pro
duclog all the effects due to ordinary voltaic cor-
relate, by. means of the action of magnets on
rotating c.als of wire. Ire the same year, the crew
industry of Mr. Sturgeon was rewarded by two other im-
portant inventions. The first of these was that of the
electromagnetic coil machibe, an instrument devised Sr the
purooae of plying • PUCCOIFIIieII of el chic shocks in medical
treatment, sod which has been generally preferred by
medical men to all others intended for similar puree.
The other was an eleetro magnetic engine, fur ;mice
motion to machinery.
Mr. S'airgen filled the chair of experimental philosophy
in the lion. Rest India Company's Military Academy at
Addiecombe, for some years with grew credit to hains.4.
Oa a recent occasion, &dioxides having fallen u?tin this able
experimentelist in the decline of life, governs. nt, is, the
representation of some stic.tifie friends, advanced him the
aim of 2001.; aid is 1819 awarded to him the small Fh11,104
11801. per annum, which he enjoyed for only one year.
The lost work of this remarkable man was that of collect-
ing and publishing his works in one quarto volume; on
which we hope to bestow some further notice.

To say that'llr. Sturgeon was witi.out faults would be to
my that that he was sot human. We might object to the
puerity with which he attacked other cultivators of science;
and on the que►ti..n of the lightning condavers he all Ind
himself to ue betrayed into the condilou of • partisan, by
wt ich the strength of his position was damned Taste
things will use to be renumbered; but William Sturgeon
and the el.ctromegnet are assmisted through all time.
We trust that the committee formed at Menthester for
the purpom of wadies the widow and daughter it la-
mentably bereaved, may be fully succesdal In their efforts.—
Atheneum,.