Hans Oersted's childhood represented a minimal chance of either attaining greatness or serving his people so well, and over so long a span of life. He was born in a small Danish town in August 14, 1777. His father was a village apothecary whose slender income made it difficult to feed his family, let alone educating2 them in a town without even a school. At 12 Hans was sufficiently mature to help his father in the apothecary shop, which helped to stimulate his interest in medicine and science. In 1793 he decided to enter the University of-Copenhagen and devoted himself to sciences of medicine, physics and astronomy. He completed his training in pharmacy also, taking his degree with high honors in 1797, and in 1799 he was awarded the degree of doctor of philosophy along with a prize on an essay in medicine. He proposed a fresh theory of alkalis which later was accepted in chemical practices. Hans's student days were at the time when Europe was in a new intellectual ferment following the Revolution in America and a strong wave of intellectual awareness was sweeping the continent. Oersted was stirred by the announcement about Volta s discovery of chemical electricity and he immediately applied the voltaic pile to experiments with acids and alkalis. In 1803 Oersted applied for the University's chair in physics but was rejected. He continued experimenting and lecturing polishing the results of his experiments. In the same year Oersted, simultaneously with Humphry Davy, discovered that acids increased the strength of a voltaic battery more than did salts. In 1806 he became professor of physics at the Copenhagen University. In 1814 Oersted took an active part in University political discussions. He supported the freedom of judgement as opposed to dogma. In 1819 he succeeded in producing light by creating an electric discharge in mercury vapor through which an electric current was made to flow. The first direct event that led to the publication of Oersted's discovery of electromagnetism occurred during a lecture for advanced students in 1820. At this lecture Oersted happened to place the conducting wire over and parallel to a magnetic needle. One says the experiment concerned the heating of some platinum wire by means of an electric current and that a compass needle happened by chance to be near and underneath the conducting wire. In any case Oersted observed the needle to swing strongly aside as though a magnet had been moved close to it. Using a more powerful battery and a large conductor Oersted repeated the experiment with startling results. After this he arrived at a set of conclusions which help. Used later in one of the most famous and rare bits of scientific literature. In this work he announced that an electric current in a "conductor created a circular magnetic field around the conductor. Further, if the magnetic needle is brought into the field, surrounding the wire, it will set itself tangent to the circular field, continuing its tangential position if the needle is carried around the wire, pointing in one direction beneath the wire and in the opposite direction above it. The direction of the current being reversed in the conductor, the direction of the needle is similarly reversed from its former position. Various substances interposed between wire and needle had no effect on the latter. Incredibly simple as this relationship seems to be3 it remained unobserved during two decades of investigation by many penetrating minds. Oersted's discovery of electromagnetism literally electrified the entire scientific world,

 

EXERCISES

 I. Read fluently: a minimal chance, a village apothecary, for the University's chair, it has never been mentioned, as though a magnet had been moved, arriving at a set of conclusions.

II. Find in the text synonyms for: to reach, enough, to make up one's mind, to finish, at once, at the same time; force, to show, to watch, to participate, similarity, significant, to take place, different, research, under, whole, to use.

 III. Memorize the following pairs of antonyms: beneath — above; former — latter; close — far; attraction — repulsion; increase — decrease; frequent — rare; more — less; to accept — to reject,

IV. Give derivatives of the following words and translate them: to compiete, to announce, to apply, to create, certain, to attract, to repel, to observe.

V. Give different meanings of the following words and illustrate them in sentences: do, that, those, one, to apply, to make. VI. Make up sentences using the following expressions: either .,. or, as though, along with, in any case, to take an active part.

VII. Translate and memorize the following expressions: to complete a training 'in, to take a degree, to be stirred with, to be devoted to, as opposed to, to be contrary to, to arrive at a conclusion,

VIII. Get ready to speak on one of the following topics; 1. Oersted's boyhood. 2. His education. 3. His life and scientific activity, 4, Oersted's participation in political discussions in the University,

 IX. Answer the following questions: 1. Where did the thought of electromagnetism come to the mind of Oersted? 2. Where did Oersted place the conducting wire? 3. What was the experiment concerned with? 4. What did Oersted observe? 5. How did he repeat the experiment? 6. What conclusions did he arrive at? 7; What happened with the needle brought into a circular magnetic field? What happened to the needle if the current reversed its direction? X. Be ready to speak about the discovery of electromagnetism and the significance of this great discovery