cipal quantitative study of his magnetic condenser used
13 identical coils, each with 100 turns. In order that the turns should
all be at approximately the same distance from the needle, the coils
were wound of the finest brass wire that could be silk-insulated, the
wire diameter being 0.02 lines. On adding coils one at a time across the
cell (i.e., connecting them in parallel), the deflections were as
follows:

Turns 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
Deflection in
degrees 45 50 55 59-60 62 63 64

Turns 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300
Deflection in
degrees 65 65-1/2 66 66 66 66

Adding some coils with fewer turns, and connecting various combinations
"as a _continuum_" (i.e., in series), the deflections using the same
cell were:

Turns 1 5 10 25 50 75 100 200
Deflection in
degrees 10 22 27 30 35-40 40 40 40

Turns 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Deflection in
degrees 40 40 41 40 40 40 40 40

Making a few coils from wire with 1/8-line diameter, the deflections,
again using the same cell were:

Turns 5 25 50 100 Over 100
Deflection in degrees 20-22 40-45 45 65 65

Since the needle used in these experiments was almost as long as the
inside clearance of the coils, no simple tangent law can be applied, and
it is not possible to discover an equivalent circuit in modern terms.
However, the constancy of the deflections for large numbers of turns in
each case indicates that the cell voltage and resistance were fairly
constant, and a rough estimate suggests that the cell resistance was
comparable to the resistance of one of the 100-turn coils of fine wire.
Such a value means that cell resistance limited the maximum deflections
for the parallel-connected multipliers, while coil resistance fixed the
limit in the series case.

For all of these reasons, it was impossible that any useful functional
law could be obtained from the data.

Poggendorf concluded only that "the amplifying power of the condenser
does not increase without limit, but has a maximum value dependent on
the conditions of plate area and wire size." He added two other
significant comments derived f