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**Felix EHRENHAFT**

**Magnetic Current**

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---

**[(1) Alden Armagnac: *Popular Science*
(June 1944); "Magic With Magnetism"](#1)**

**[(2) *Popular Science* (April 1945), p.
208: "Ehrenhaft Discovery Confirmed by New Experiments"](#2)**

**[(3) *Radio-Electronics* (1978 ?): "Lights
That Failed"](#3)**

**[(4) Leonard Cramp: *Space, Gravity, and the
Flying Saucer* (excerpt, pp. 154-156)](#4)**

**[(5) Kristen Joseph: *Electric Spacecraft
Journal* (July/Aug/Sept 1991, pp. 18-23); "Magnetic
Currents --- The Monopole?"](#5)**

**[(6) Felix Ehrenhaft: *Nature* 147
(#3714): 25 (Jan. 4, 1941); "Stationary Electric and
Magnetic Fields in Beams of Light"](#6)**

**[(7) F. Ehrenhaft / Leo Banet: *Nature*
147: 297 (March 8, 1941); "Magnetization of Matter by Light"](#7)**

**([8) F. Ehrenhaft: *Science* 101 (#2635):
676-677 (June 29, 1945); "Rotating Action on Matter in a
Beam of Light"](#8)**

**[(9) F. Ehrenhaft: *The London, Edinburgh,
and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science,*
Series 7, vol. 5 (# 28), pp. 225-241 (February 1928); "New
Evidence of the Existence of Charges Smaller than the
Electron"](#9)**

**[(10) Keelynet Discussion Notes](#keelynet)**

---

**(1) *Popular Science* (June 1944), pp.
130-134, 222**

**Magic With Magnetism**

**By Alden Armagnac**

![](a1.gif)

*If this experimenter is right, his discovery will upset all
out accepted ideas on this familiar force*

Can a magnet take water to pieces? No, say physics textbooks.
Yes, says Prof. Felix Ehrenhaft, former director of the Physical
Institute at the University of Vienna, who now carries on his
research in New York. If he should turn out to be right, his
findings in the realm of magnetism promise practical
applications as far-reaching as the dynamos, motors,
transformers, telephones, and radio that have stemmed from
Faradays research in electricity.

For his "impossible" experiment, Dr Ehrenhaft employs the
simplest of apparatus. Two shiny rods of pure Swedish iron,
sealed in holes through opposite sides of a U-shaped tube,
resemble a setup familiar to high-school students for breaking
up water into hydrogen and oxygen gases by passing electricity
through it. And that is exactly what would happen if Dr
Ehrenhaft attached electric wires from a battery to the rods.
But, he does no such thing.

Instead, he uses the iron rods as pole pieces, or North and
South ends of a magnet --- either an electromagnet or a
permanent magnet. Bubbles of gas rise through the twin columns
of acidulated water, to be collected and analyzed. As might be
expected, nearly all of the gas is hydrogen, liberated by a
commonplace chemical interaction between the iron rods and
sulfuric acid, one percent by volume, in the water. But the
phenomenal part of the experiment is that oxygen also turns up,
Dr Ehrenhaft recently told the American Physical Society. To be
specific, it is found in clearly measurable proportions ranging
from 2 to 12% of the total volume of gases. When the gases
obtained with a permanent magnet are separated, the larger
proportion of oxygen is found above the north pole of the
magnet. After rigorous precautions that seem to rule out all
other explanations --- including short-circuiting the magnet
poles with wire, so that the poles will be at the same electric
potential --- Dr Ehrenhaft concludes that there is only one
place the oxygen can come from. And that is from the water
decomposed with a magnet! Without a magnet, pure hydrogen is
evolved.

There is an interesting sidelight to this experiment. A strong
permanent magnet of the Alnico type suffers a marked loss of
strength --- say, 10% in 24 hours --- after being used to
decompose water, Dr Ehrenhaft observes. In fact, makers of the
magnets, which are supposed to last for years without material
change, have viewed what happens to them with astonishment and
dismay. But no fault lies with their products. Energy from an
electric battery is used up in decomposing water, and it would
be only reasonable to expect energy stored in up in a permanent
magnet to be drained likewise.

What gives the utmost significance to the reported feat of
breaking up water with a magnet is the fresh evidence it offers
for the existence of "magnetic current", or a flow of
magnetically charged particles, which has been suspected by
noted pioneers and which Dr Ehrenhaft now maintains he has
proved. Confirmation of this amazing discovery would point to a
possible future rival of electric current, perhaps capable of
being harnesses in undreamed-of ways.

Needless to say, the scientific world will require a whole lot
of convincing, since Dr Ehrenhafts conclusions flatly
contradict long-established beliefs. As every schoolboy is
taught, a magnet has a north pole and a south pole. Break it in
two with a hammer, and each piece will have a north pole and
south pole of its own. No law forbids you to imagine a magnet
with only one pole, and the idea comes in handy in certain
electrical and radio calculations. But as for actual fact, you
cannot have one pole without the other, an experimenter named
Peter Peregrinus believed; he demonstrated it to his
satisfaction, using a lodestone, in the year 1269, and
prevailing opinion has backed him up ever since. As we kiow now,
the lodestone that he floated on a platform in water simply
turned until its north pole faced the south magnetic pole of the
earth, and vice versa. It showed no observable excess of north
or of south magnetism --- and hence the conclusion that the two
are always equal.

But would the dictum of no separate magnetic poles still hold
true in a far more delicate test --- say, if you substituted
microscopic particles of iron or other magnetic metals, as tiny
as particles of smoke, for the massive chunk of rock that
Peregrinus used? Dr Ehrenhaft has tried it. In an air gap
between the north and south poles of a magnet, he sets up what
he calls a homogenous magnetic field, that is, with the lines of
force absolutely parallel. In this field, he finds, the meal
particles move toward the north or south pole, reversing their
direction according to the direction of the magnetic field. In
the particles, he concludes, there must be an excess of N or S
magnetic charge. Expanding the terminology of Faraday, he calls
the particles magnetic ions. They are the single magnetic poles
shown at the lower right of the drawing. Instead of bearing plus
or minus electric charges, as familiar ions do, they carry N or
S magnetic charges.

Now, just as traveling electric ions form an electric current,
why shouldnt traveling magnetic ions form a magnetic current?
See for yourself another of Dr Ehrenhafts startling
experiments, and draw your own conclusions.

This time the heart of the apparatus will be a small glass
cell, fitted as before with pole pieces of pure iron that dip
into water containing one percent of sulfuric acid. An
electromagnet, turned on or off at will, energizes the poles.
From a projector, a powerful beam of light converges upon the
narrow gap between the pole pieces, and a low-power microscope,
mounted horizontally, reveals that happens there. Adding a
camera provides a permanent record.

You begin with the magnet turned off. Looking into the eyepiece
of the microscope, you see streams of bubbles rising from both
pole pieces. They are of hydrogen gas, liberated by the same
chemical action as the first experiment.

Throw the switch that turns on the magnet, and the scene
abruptly changes. Stopped dead in their tracks, some of the
bubbles cling to the pole pieces. Others leave one pole and
travel to the other. Dr Ehrenhaft calls special attention to
bubbles moving downward against their own buoyancy, impelled by
some unseen force stronger than gravity.

Meanwhile a spectacular phenomenon has been developing --- a
miniature merry-go-round of gas bubbles between the faces of the
poles and parallel to them. Incapable of being shown adequately
in a time exposure, the effect nevertheless appears plainly as a
white blur, when the upper magnetic pole is given a conical
shape for photographic purposes. Visual observation shows
striking details. If copper particles, say, have been added to
the acidulated water, they will rotate in the same plane as the
hydrogen bubbles, but in the opposite direction. For both, the
speed of the whirligig depends upon the strength of the magnetic
field. Reverse the polarity of the magnet, and each set of
particles spins in the opposite direction.

Here are no wild-eyed theories, but perfectly demonstrable
facts. Any skeptical physicist has a standing invitation to see
them with his own eyes at Dr Ehrenhafts laboratory, placed at
his disposal in the New York City quarters of the famous Carl
Zeiss optical firm. How to account for the phenomena remains a
challenge to science, unless Dr Ehrenhafts conclusions are to
be accepted. See how neatly they would draw an analogy between
well-known electric effects and the new-found magnetic effects:

Bubbles or particles that travel between pole pieces of a
magnet behave just as if they were magnetic ions, or clusters of
thyem --- repelled by like magnetic poles, and attracted by
oppositely magnetized poles. This corresponds exactly with the
way that "electric"or ordinary ions interact with positive and
negative electrodes. And as for the ring-around-the-rosy
behavior of the hydrogen bubbles and copper particles, Dr
Ehrenhaft concludes that these are electrically charged
particles --- ordinary ions--- rotating about a magnetic
current. This would be an exact counterpart of the classical
conception that magnetism rotates about a current-carrying
electric conductor.

Now the staggering implications of Dr Ehrenhaft's observations
begin to unfold. Existence of such a thing as magnetic current,
once established, would pave the way for inductries as gigantic
as those that the discovery of electricity led to in its time. A
"gold rush" for practical applications might be expected.
Patents for them would command fabulous sums, since inventions
employing magnetic current would be basic.

What form they may take, no man can foresee, and Dr Ehrenhaft
cautiouslydeclaines to hazard a guess. Yet a visitor to his
laboratory cannot resist the temptation to let his imagination
run free. New kinds of motors and generators? Better ways to
transmit power? Transformers that will work on direct current
isntead of alternating current? Atom smashers? Radical methods
of seeing things in the dark, and through microscopes and
telescopes? Ways to tap power from the magnetism of the Earth
itself? And, in your home, substitution of magnetic current ---
who ever got a shock from it? --- for electric current? Pure
dreams, all of them, today --- but some of them, perhaps,
realities of 2044.

Before magnetic currents could be put in harness, of course, a
myriad of questions about their behavior remain to be studied
and answered. So far, no one knows whether they can be led
through wires, like electric currnets, as well as through
conducting liquids. If so, the wires might be of entirely
different materials than the best conductors for electricity.
Likewise, the most effective insulators for magnetic current
might be substances totally unlike those used for electrical
insulators. The whole subject offers as vast a field for
pioneering research as electricity did a century ago. And now,
as then, an amateur experimenter puttering in his basement
stands as good achance of making an epochal discovery as does a
distinguished scientist in a great laboratory.   
    
 

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---

**(2) *Popular Science*, p. 208 (April
1945)**

**"Ehrenhaft Discovery Confirmed by New
Experiments"**

By observing whirligigs of electrically charges particles in a
magnetic field, Brother Gabriel Kane of Manhattan College and
Charles B. Reynolds of the Federal Communications Commission
confirm the phenomenal discovery of magnetic currents by Dr.
Felix Ehrenhaft (P.S.M., June 1944, p. 130). Going further, they
make a drop of copper sulfate solution spin between the pole
pieces of a permanent magnet, even rotating in interposed
microscope cover glass with it. Present laboratory tests may
lead to momentous applications in power machinery of the future.

---

**(3) Radio-Electronics (1978 ?)**

**"Lights That Failed"**

**Discovery of the Age? ~**

In March 1944, *Radio-Craft* published an article,
"Magnetic Current --- Discovery of the Age?". It described the
work of refugee scientist Felix Ehrenhaft, Director of the
Physics Institute, University of Vienna. Ehrenhaft believed that
he had discovered particles with a one-pole magnetic charge
(either N or S but not both). Beaming light on the gap between
the poles of a powerful electromagnet, on the lower pole piece
of which powdered metal had been scattered, he found that when
the magnet was activated he could see some of the particles
spring from the lower to the upper pole. Ehrenhaft believed that
this indicated that they had a monopolar magnetic charge (Others
were not so sure).

The work attracted a great deal of attention. *Radio-Craft*
devoted two articles and an editorial to it. There is a gap in
electromagnetic theory that would be filled neatly by monopole
magnets and magnetic current, and students were extremely
interested. Ehrenhaft made a number of other experiments that
supported his hypothesis. Unfortunately one of the most dramatic
ones --- indicating that water could be decomposed magnetically
--- went wrong. It was absolutely unrepeatable. The professor
was tremendously embarrassed, and to some extent withdrew from
public discussion, carrying on his experimental work in the
semi-seclusion of Manhattan College.

He returned to his post in Vienna after the war, and some of
his later work was published in French and other scientific
journals. He died not so long after, and interest in magnetic
monopoles seemed to have died with him, until about 1970. Then
one H.R. Kolm reported finding a track produced by a particle
that was strongly accelerated in a magnetic field, something
that might indicate a monopole magnet. He never published a
formal paper on the subject, and presumably did not feel that he
had enough evidence that a magnetic monopole existed.

In 1975, scientists of the University of California and of the
University of Houstton (TX) reported the existence of a
particle, far heavier than any yet discovered, that fitted the
characteristics of a magnetic monopole as laid down
theoretically by Dirac in 1931. For one thing Dirac had
suggested that the particle --- if it existed --- should have a
basic charge of 68.5 or a multiple of that number. The suspected
particles had a charge of 137.

Three years later no further discoveries have been reported. An
inquiry to Dr Alfred Goldhaber, who commented with interest on
the 1975 discovery, reveals that though he has been doing
theoretical work on the subject since 1975, "neither I nor
anyone else has any evidence of the existence of magnetic
monopoles". The final conclusion of the 1975 experimenters, he
said, were that the track was not compatible with the magnetic
monopole.

So the subject is still open. Theoretically, there is a place
in the universe for magnetic monopoles, but apparently so far
nobody has ever "seen" one.

![](b1.gif)



---

**(4) Leonard G. Cramp: *Space, Gravity,
and the Flying Saucer* (pp. 154-156)**

**[Excerpt]**

Here is an account of an experiment carried out by the
well-known Viennese physicist Felix Ehrenhaft, whose work may
prove to be an inspiration to students of this new approach to
Kinematics.

Ehrenhaft and his colleague, Ernst Reeger, have proved that
there is more than a little truth in the suspicion that tiny
particles of dust tend to rotate when exposed to the rays of the
sun. For they have not only reproduced this phenomenon in the
laboratory, but they have succeeded in photographing it as well.
In order to do this, Ehrenhaft placed tiny graphite particles
into a glass flask, from which the air was completely evacuated.
Then the flask was exposed to focused beams of sunlight.
Instantly a large number of particles were seen to rise from the
bottom of the flask and start to weave elliptical, circular and
spiral-shaped paths, which were quite visible to the naked eye.
The phenomenon ceased as soon as the light was weakened or cut
off completely. Photographs taken at one-fifth and one-tenth of
a second proved that not only were the particles orbiting, but
more significantly, they were spinning on their own axis.

It is of interest to note that Ehrenhaft would like to relate
the phenomenon to his own theory of a new type of physical
force. He suggests that it is a purely magnetic force which
permeates throughout the known universe.

---

**(5) *Electric Spacecraft Journal*
(July/Aug/Sept 1991), pp. 18-23) ~**

**"Magnetic Currents --- The Monopole?"**

**By Kristen Joseph**

The following is a review of the work of Felix Ehrenhaft,
affiliated with the Physical Institute at the State University
of Vienna for most of his career. He began as an assistant
professor in 1907 and held the post of director by 1920. In 1938
he left Austria for the United States and became a citizen the
following year. In 1944, at a conference at Columbia University,
where he had a lab, he revealed his various theories. Six months
later Ehrenhaft gave further evidence of magnetic monopoles at a
conference of the American Physical Society at Rochester
University. He died in Vienna in 1952 at the age of 73.

We thank Jennifer Piel for graciously providing the reference
material for this article.

Ehrenhaft was head of the Physical Institute of the State
University of Vienna until shortly after Germany took Austria in
1938. He experimented with the behavior of minute particles
under intense illumination in a field of electricity. His work
began to suggest that a light wave carries tiny, energizing
power stations of varying magnitude and pole, which could
transfer energy and charge to particles of matter in the path of
that light. He showed that light could propel matter and, later
on, that ultraviolet light, for instance, magnetizes iron.

In measuring the effects that these power stations in a light
wave have on ions, Ehrenhaft used a very small condenser and was
able to measure forces a small as 1-10 dynes,
determining charges on particles to be 2.9 x 1-10
esu, which is considerably smaller than the 1.60 x 10-19
coulomb (4.8 x 10-10 esu) that his contemporary
Millikan attributed to the electron --- the value science
accepts as standard to this day.

**Micro-Manipulation ~**

He worked with particles so exceedingly small (10-4
to 10-5 cm diam., +/- 0.1 to 1 micron) that several
had to be lined up by micromanipulation before their end-to-end
diameters added up enough to be measured, and it was perhaps
because such extremely complex calculations went into measuring
the charges on those particles that scientists in Ehrenhafts
day discounted the final results of his experiments, which he
concluded in 1937.

**Single Poles ~**

But perhaps of greatest impact is Ehrenhafts discovery,
through numerous verifiable experiments using light, minute
particles and magnetic fields, that magnets appear to carry a
single pole, and therefore, that a magnetic current exists
separately from the static magnetism of a magnetic field.

Conventional wisdom has it that magnetic poles always occur in
pairs of opposites and that it is not possible for a magnetized
object to have a north pole without an attached south pole.

**Peregrinus ~**

Based  on the experiment reportedly done by Petrus
Peregrinus in 1629, if a magnet is broken, new poles appear near
the break in such a way that each pole has two opposite poles as
well.

Ehrenhaft identified the problem with that crude experiment ---
the lodestone Peregrinus put on a cork and floated in a bowl of
water had too little mobility with respect to the geomagnetic
field, and the very act of breaking it in pieces created
magnetism through friction.

When Ehrenhaft repeated this experiment with very sensitive
equipment, particles of microscopic size and a strong
homogeneous field, he got different results.

Ehrenhaft set up a condenser with plates 8 mm in diameter and
about 2 mm apart on the face of iron cylinders, thereby creating
a vertical magnetic field that could be reversed at will.

He also could apply a reversible electric field if needed,
going in the same direction but independent of the magnetic
field. All observations were made with a dark field microscope.
With his assistant, Leo Banet, he reported the following effects
in the September 4, 1942 issue of Science:

"If one places a minute amount of very fine powder, such as Fe,
Ni, Mn, Cr, Sb in the exact center of the lower magnetrode, one
can see, as soon as the magnetic field is applied, that some of
the particles move toward the upper plate, while others remain
at rest. It is also possible to place some particles on the
upper plate, while others remain at rest. It is also possible to
place some particles on the upper plate only. Of these, some
move toward the lower magnetrode as soon as the magnetic field
is applied, while the others remain at rest. It is even possible
to combine both experiments at the same time. One then observes
that some of the particles move toward the N and some toward the
S magnetrode, carrying charges opposite to those of the plates
to which they move. The particles arrange themselves on the
magnetrodes in the direction of the lines of force and in
needle-like masses parallel to each other and perpendicular to
the plates". (Ref. !4)

**Magneto-Phoresis ~**

He reported similar polarization of the particles regardless of
whether they were suspended in gas or liquid, and they behaved
similarly when they were placed in either the homogenous
electric or magnetic field:

"However, the difference could be particularly well noticed on
Cu particles, which moved only in electric fields but not in
magnetic ones, and on some iron particles which moved in
magnetic particles but not in electric ones" (Ref. 14).

Also, some particles seemed to spontaneously change direction,
and some seemed to tremble or waver between moving in either
direction, and Ehrenhaft attributed this to a spontaneous change
in magnetic charge on these particles. He dubbed the entire
phenomenon magneto-phoresis (See Figure 1).

![](c1.gif)

**Ampere Refuted ~**

Ehrenhafts discovery of these magnetic ions refuted Amperes
hypothesis that the effects of a magnet can be substituted by
circular electric currents. Amperes electromagnets have two
poles. Ehrenhaft showed that some particles behave like
monopoles. To substantiate his claim that he had discovered
magnetic ions, and thus magnetic current, he set out to show
that magnetic current could produce the same effect as electric
current --- that the magnetic current would cause electric ions
to rotate around it in line of circular force.

Like electric ions or current, magnetic ions would do chemical
work.

If he is right, the process of electrolysis, or decomposing
water using electric poles (that had proven the existence of
electric ions) could be made to happen in a magnetic field,
thereby achieving magnetolysis and proving magnetic current by
the same criteria.

To accomplish that experimentally, Ehrenhaft set up an
electromagnet with soft iron poles that faced into dilute
sulfuric acid, electrically insulated from the iron magnet core
(See Figure 2). As one observer noted:

"When a little electric current was applied, the dilute acid
was, of course, electrolyzed, and streams of bubbles rose from
the poles. These bubbles, naturally, were electrically charged;
the poles from which they evolved were charged. If the magnetic
current existed, and if it could be made to flow from pole to
pole through the acid solution, then the bubbles should, on the
basis of theory, go into rotation around the unseen magnetic
current.

"When the electromagnet was turned on, the rising bubbles
instantly and violently twisted into a rapid rotation --- rapid
and violent to be far beyond any question of accidental eddies
of liquid convection or anything else. Reversing the magnetic
current stopped the rotation then started it equally rapidly in
the opposite direction".

![](c2.gif)

**Magnetolysis ~**

There remained the question of magnetolysis that Ehrenhaft
demonstrated using the same electromagnetic setup. This time,
however, he short-circuited the two magnetrodes by linking them
with a piece of wire, thus making electrolysis impossible. When
the magnetic field was turned on, the natural slow evolution of
bubbles speeded up; when collected and evaluated after some time
a respectable percentage of those bubbles were found to be
oxygen.

Ehrenhaft gave details of the experiment in *Physical Review*
in 1943:

"Between the vertical cylindrical poles (magnetrodes) of an
electromagnet of soft Swedish iron, whose bases form a
horizontal gap (pole diameter 8 mm, gap 1-2 mm) acidulated water
(1% sulfuric acid by volume) is decomposed into oxygen and
hydrogen gas... As long as the two poles immersed in the
solution are not magnetized, we get pure hydrogen, but as soon
as the two poles are magnetized, we get a mixture of hydrogen
and oxygen (about 2-12% oxygen)". (Ref. 8)

Since chemical action alone would not yield oxygen, some
additional process was at work breaking down the water to its
elements.

Ehrenhaft continued:

"Microscopic observation shows that the magnetically evolved
gas bubbles carry either a N or S magnetic charge... Each of
these positive charged gas bubbles moves in a circle around the
gap between the magnetrodes, through which a constant magnetic
currnet flows, reversing its direction on reversion of the
magnetic field, exactly as a single magnetic pole would
circulate around the constant electric current, reversing its
direction with the reversal of the electric field". (Ref. 8)

**Magnetic Current ~**

Ehrenhaft discovered that a magnetic current is surrounded by
circular electric lines of force and that the magnetic charge of
the magnet could be set free by making it release oxygen gas
from acidulated water.

Interestingly, as John W. Campbell, Jr. pointed out in his
article on Ehrenhaft in the May 1944 issue of *Astounding
Science Fiction*, electrically charged particles do not
rotate detectably around the gap between the poles of a
permanent magnet. He noted the reason for this was: "[T]he
permanent magnet represents stored magnetic energy --- static
magnetic field energy, pretty solidly tied down", similar to an
electret, the magnets counterpart (The electret has stored
electric-field energy that it cannot release as current). "The
permanent magnet does not, therefore, have a magnetic current
associated with it. The observed lack of rotation, then,
conforms with theory". (Ref. 1)

**Measuring Magnetic Current ~**

Assuming the existence of magnetic current, Ehrenhaft wanted to
measure it, and he did it the same way Ampere first quantified
the nature of electric current. Ampere stated that a single
magnetic pole would whirl around a wire carrying an electric
current, the intensity of which was measured by the work done by
carrying a unit magnetic pole once around the entire electric
current.

In an experiment described in *Physical Review* 1944
(Ref. 12), Ehrenhaft learned that permanent magnets lose a
portion of their pole strength during the magnetolysis process:

"Dr Ehrenhaft has set up an alnico magnet, and drained the pole
strength by approximately 10% in 60 hours in one case, and with
another magnet the same pole-strength reduction was accomplished
in 24 hours". (Ref. 1)

This is the counterpart of the loss in pole-strength of Voltas
pile during electrolysis, indicating the average intensity of
the magnetic current flowing between the pole faces in what
Ehrenhaft termed "absolute magneto-static units" or msu. In the
magnetic version of Amperes statement, he observed:

"The intensity of the magnetic current measured electrically is
equal to the work done in carrying a unit electric charge once
about the electromagnetic current". (Ref. 5)

For example, the numerical value of the magnetic charge on a
single particle of nickel in gas could be smaller than 5 x 1-10
msu.

**Electric and Magnetic Charges ~**

In subsequent experiments Ehrenhaft established that particles
can carry both electric and magnetic charges at the same time as
evidenced by their motion in gas or liquid. He theorized that
the magnetic charge equaled the electric charge on particles of
the same size. In one experiment, the particles rotated around
the magnetic current because of their electric charges. Because
of their magnetic charges, bubbles moved either upeard or
downward. Their resulting path was a helix and could be seen
"even by the naked eye to be circulating in a counterclockwise
direction, when looking upon the face of the S pole. This
movement carried the bubbles downward, even against the force of
buoyancy". (Ref. 12)

**The Third Force ~**

The ramifications of what Ehrenhaft discovered can only be
guessed at:

"It is the belief today that there exist in nature only two
general forces, the force of gravity and the magnetic action of
electric currents. But we have here a third force, the electric
action of magnetic currents". (Ref. 12)

In the same letter to the editors of *Physical Review*,
he wrote:

"Oersted found... a vortex around the wire connecting the two
poles of Voltas pile. The phenomena here reported show that
there is a vortex around the poles of an electro- or permanent
magnet. In Oersteds experiment, the pile lost its pole
strength. In the experiment with the permanent magnet, the
magnet lost its pole strength. In Oersteds experiment, we have
to deal with electrodynamic rotations. In the new case, we have
to deal with magnetodynamic rotations. Both rotations are the
result of the expenditure of energy, one from Voltas pile, the
other from the magnet.

"If the single magnetic pole is fixed and alone in action, the
opposite pole being remote as is done in Faradays experiment,
and the wire conducting the electric current is free to move,
the wire will rotate around the single pole. This is the
principle of the electric motor...

"In the new case... we have two fixed magnetic poles with the
electrically charged matter free to rotate around the magnetic
current. This is, in principio, the magnetic motor. We are here
using our third force. One cannot tell how a motor operated by
this force can be utilized". (Ref. 12)

**Magnetic Motors ~**

Science writer John W. Campbell, Jr, however, envisioned
magnetic charges with mutual attraction forces equivalent to
millions of volts operating in small practical machines. He
speculated that, "A magneto-electret --- consisting of a coil of
magnetic conductor carrying a heavy magnetic current --- would
develop electric potentials that did not tend to arc across.
Perhaps a small magnetic coil would develop 50,000,000 volt
potentials that could tear atoms apart". (Ref. 1)

**Twins ~**

But perhaps of far greater importance, Ehrenhaft pointed out,
"is the necessity to define more clearly the part that the
inseparable twins, electricity and magnetism, play in their
interaction, one on another, and to determine if, in the future,
they can best be defined by one symbol only" (Ref. 12).

**Conclusion ~**

Ehrenhafts work with the effects of intense light beams on
small particles was never conclusive. He did show, however, that
light beams of short frequency could repel and attract some
small particles; that matter thus excited by light tended to
move along magnetic lines of force much like he speculated that
the gases in a stars corona took shape as though surrounding a
magnetized sphere.

He pointed out that the intense light and magnetic current
flowing from the sun to the earth along the lines of force of
the Earths magnetic field was likely creating the aurora
borealis and other magnetic effects still little understood
today.

![](c3.gif)

**References ~**

(1) Campbell, John W., Jr: "Beachhead for Science", *Astounding
Science Fiction* (May 1944), pp. 103-117.

(2) Ehrenhaft, Felix: "Physical and Astronomical information
Concerning Particles of the Order of Magnitude of the Wavelength
of Light", *Journal of the Franklin Institute*, vol 230:
381-393 (Sept. 1940)

(3) Ehrenhaft, Felix: "Photophoresis and Its Interpretation by
Electric and Magnetic Ions", *Journal of the Franklin
Institute*, vol 233 (March 1942), pp. 235-255.

(4) Ehrenhaft, Felix: "Stationary Electric and Magnetic Fields
in Beams of Light", *Nature* 147: 25 (Jan. 4, 1941).

(5) Ehrenhaft, Felix: "The Magnetic Current", *Nature*
154: 426-427 (Sept. 30, 1944)

(6) Ehrenhaft, Felix: "The Magnetic Current in Gases", *Physical
Review* 61: 733 (1942).

(7) Ehrenhaft, Felix: "Decomposition of Matter Through the
Magnet (Magnetolysis)", *Physical Review* 63: 216 (1943).

(8) Ehrenhaft, Felix: "Magnetolysis and the Electric Field
Around the Magnetic Current", *Physical Review* 63:
461-462 (1943).

(9) Ehrenhaft, Felix: "Further Facts Concerning the magnetic
Current", *Physical Review* 64: 43 (1943).

(10) Ehrenhaft, Felix: "New Experiments about the Magnetic
Current", *Physical Review* 65: 62-63 (1944).

(11) Ehrenhaft, Felix: "Continuation of Experiments with the
Magnetic Current", *Physical Review* 65: 256 (1944).

(12) Ehrenhaft, Felix: "The Decomposition of Water by the
So-Called Permanent Magnet...", *Physical Review* 65:
287-289 (May 1944).

(13) Ehrenhaft, Felix: "The Magnetic Current", *Science*
94: 232-233 (Sept 5, 1941).

(14) Ehrenhaft, Felix and Banet, Leo: "The Magnetic Ion", *Science*
96: 228-229 (Sept. 4, 1942).

(15) Renne, Harold S.: "Magnetic Current", *Radio News
Electric World*, p. 22 (April 1945).

(16) *Nature* 84: 182 (August 11, 1910).

Kristen Joseph is a freelance technical writer who lives in Hot
Springs, NC. She prepared this material with ESJ reference
material.

---

**(6) Nature 147 (#3714):25 (Jan. 4,
1941)**

**"Stationary Electric and Magnetic Fields
in Beams of Light"**

**Felix Ehrenhaft**

According to then electromagnetic theory of light (Maxwell,
Hertz) the electric light vector and the magnetic light vector
oscillate perpendicularly to the direction of propagation. The
energy of the wave is given by Poyntings vector.

It is shown below, on the basis of experimental findings, that
every wave of light possesses likewise a stationary field
intensity E in its direction of propagation and also the
stationary magnetic field of intensity H. That means there is a
potential difference between two points on the ray of light.
Accordingly, it should be possible to collect electricity from
the ray under suitable conditions. A beam of light therefore
constitutes a source of electricity; furthermore, light has
magnetizing effects.

Experimental proof of this generalization was obtained from my
investigations of the interaction between light and small
particles of matter (*Ann. Phys*. 18: 151). This permits of
the measurement of forces of the order of 10-9 to 10-19
dynes. The sensitivity of measurements of forces is thus
increased by my methods by a factor of 1,000-10,000

When particles of matter are irradiated by sufficiently intense
light of sufficiently small wavelength, regardless of the
direction of the wave front normal, then positive or negative
electric charges, or north or south magnetic poles, are induced
on these particles. Particles of otherwise identical properties
move in a homogeneous electric or in a  homeogeous magnetic
field in or against the direction of the electric field
(electro-photophoresis), or in or against the direction of the
magnetic field (magneto-photophoresis). These induced temporary
electric or magnetic ions exist as long as the particles are
irradiated by sufficiently intense light. Furthermore, it can be
observed that some particles stay at rest and that their motion
commences suddenly,or that moving particles appear to change
their velocity and even reverse it. These are due to changes of
charge. The movement of magnetic ions in a homogenous magnetic
field is a magnetic currnet.

These phenomena are best observed when two fully symmetrical
beams of light are directed against each other and when the
fields act perpendicularly, are reversible and free from
residual magnetism and electricity, and are also homogeneous.
The intensity of this motion depends upon the frequency of the
light wave. It increases with increasing frequency and is also
dependent on the material. I have also found that, when using
just one concentrated beam of light, without any field, small
particles of matter of magnitude 10-4 to 1-5
cm of the same kind as before moved in clean gases either away
from the source of light (light-positive, longitudinal
photophoresis) or towards the source of light (light negative,
longitudinal photophoresis). This force increases with the
intensity of the light and likewise depends upon frequency and
material.

There are particles which do not show longitudinal
photophoresis at first, but only after a certain time, and some
which gradually lose it. I have shown in another paper also that
radiometer forces cannot account for these effects (*J.
Franklin Inst.* 230: 381). Longitudinal photophoresis has
also been found in liquids with particles of the same material.
These particles moved in opposite directions.

Since light makes particles of matter unipolar with respect to
homogeneous electric fields, and since, when no such fields act,
it makes them move in or against the direction of its wave front
normal, there must be an electric field E coincident with the
direction of the wave front normal. This means that
electromagnetic waves possess longitudinal stationary components
of E, and therefore potential differences between different
points along the beam. The magnitude of those fields can be
calculated from actual measurements.

These facs have been confirmed by further experiments by myself
and some of my pupils. An electric field suitably arranged
parallel to the wave front normal permits the acceleration or
retardation or even reversal of positive or negative
photophoresis. The superposed field alters the component of the
electromotive force in the direction of the beam.

From similar experiments it can be concluded that
stationary  magnetic fields exist in the beam of light,
since superposed magnetic fields accelerate or retard the
magneto-photophoresis. Those stationary magnetic fields in the
beam of light have a magnetizing effect on the material as above
mentioned.

In conclusion, I find that light beams have electric stationary
components in the direction of the wave front normal, and that
consequently there must be stationary electric potential
differences between different points along the beam. There must
also be a stationary magnetic field in the beam of light with
potential differences.

---

**(7) *Nature* (March 8, 1941), p. 297 ~**

**"Magnetization of Matter by Light"**

**F. Ehrenhaft // Leo Banet**

One of us (F.E.) has shown that small particles of matter of
different chemical elements, but of the same physical qualities,
irradiated by concentrated light, move in a homogeneous magnetic
field, some of them toward the N, some toward the S pole
(magnetrode). Therefore, there must be a preponderance of either
N or S magnetism on each of these irradiated particles, and they
behave like single magnetic poles (charges)(Ref. 1). Further,
experiment led to the conclusion (Ref. 2) that, in addition to
the oscillating electric and magnetic vectors, light beams must
have electric stationary components in the direction of the wave
front normal, and that consequently there must be stationary
electric potential differences between different points along
the beam; and that there must be also a stationary magnetic
field in the beam of light with potential differences. Hence,
the light beam must have a magnetizing effect, and the charge of
a magnet should be changed by light.

Examination of the literature showed that even before the time
of Oerstedts experiments, Domenico Morichini (Ref. 3) in 1812
magnetized compass needles by means of the ultraviolet portion
of the spectrum of sunlight as used by Herschel. His experiments
were verified by M. Sommerville (Ref. 4), F. Zantedeschi (Ref.
5), V. Baumgartner (Ref. 6) and others.

We therefore undertook to test the photomagnetic effect also on
larger bodies in continuation of the above-mentioned fundamental
experiments in continuation of the microscopic bodies
(magneto-photophoresis), through which the general magnetization
of the elements and the existence of magnetic currents was
brought to light. The experiments were successful with the
simplest apparatus, undertaken in a private apartment with a 10
cent compass needle from Woolworths as an indicator, and using
a beam of light rich in ultraviolet radiation (Hanovia mercury
arc, Max=zda GE daylight bulb) which was contained by means of
quartz lesnes.

Magnetic poles (charges) were induced in various non-magnetic
and annealed pieces of iron (paperclips, nails,little iron
rods), which were placed perpendicularly to the geomagnetic
field, by irradiation for periods varying from minutes to
several hours. Those poles were mainly N magnetic and were still
present in many specimens after several days.

After short periods of irradiation, it could be shown that the
effect was local and on the surface. After long irradiation
periods saturation values were obtained.

We also convinced ourselves by means of an amplifier and
oscillograph that the characteristic of an induction coil with
an iron core changed under ultraviolet irradiation.

Naturally, the magnetization was also dependent upon the
material, its surface and history to a very high degree. Further
investigations are in progress.

**References ~**

(1) Ehrenhaft, F.: *J. Franklin Inst.* 230: 381 (1940)

(2) Ehrenhaft, F.: *Nature* 146: 25 (1941)

(3) Morichini, D.: *Gilberts Ann. Phys.* 43: 212 (1813);
*ibid.*, 46: 367 (1814).

(4) Sommerville, M.: *Gilbert A.P.* 52: 493 (1826)

(5) Zantedeschi, F.: *Gilberts A.P.* 92: 187 (1829)

(6) Baumgartner, V.: *Gilberts A.P.* 85: 508 (1827)

---

**(8) *Science* 101 (#2635): 676-677
(June 29, 1945) ~**

**"Rotating Action on Matter in a Beam of
Light"**

**Felix Ehrenhaft**

Referring to the paper read by me on January 19, 1945 at the
New York meeting of the American Physical Society, G.F. Hull
(Ref. 1) has clearly understood that my claims are new, as he
says "that he (Ehrenhaft) had claimed to prove that a beam of
natural (unpolarized) light produces a rotating action on
matter", while, as Hull states later on according to his
textbook, "the rotating action in a beam of circularly polarized
light is exceedingly small, and in a beam of natural light
nothing whatever".

When Lebedew (Ref. 2) and Nichols and Hull (Ref. 3) worked,
forces only down to 10-5 or 10-6 dyne
could be measured (Ref. 4). In 1909 I developed a method of
measurement of forces exerted in single microscopic or
submicroscopic bodies which enable the measurement of forces as
small as 10-10 dyne and applied it for the
determination of the size and the electric charge of single
spherical particles of well-known density (Ref. 5). This was
next used by K. Przibram (Ref. 6) in the measurement of the
electric charge on single droplets of mist and later by others
on oil drops. This method, 104 times more sensitive
than former methods, has resulted in the detection of phenomena
concerning the interaction between radiation and matter which I
termed photophoresis. In a concentrated beam of natural light,
test bodies of the same size and with the same physical
properties move simultaneously with the direction of propagation
of the radiation (light positive) and against this direction
(light negative). Radiometer forces of the Crookes type or
similar effects cannot be accountable for the observed facts
(Ref. 8, 9).

The above movements can be influenced by the superposition of
homogeneous magnetic or electric fields (magneto-photophoresis,
electro-photophoresis). Particels irradiated by light do move in
the homogeneous magnetic fields and reverse their direction of
movement with the reversal of the field as often as desired. It
must be concluded that they carry an excess of N or S magnetic
charge. Many of the test bodies exhibiting a magnetic charge in
the light retain this charge in the dark (Ref. 10). Thus,
expanding the terminology of Faraday, there exists a magnetic
ion in general and consequently a magnetic current. The electric
action of magnetic currents, the counterpart of the magnetic
action of electric currents has been demonstrated (Ref. 11). His
means that the single electric charge (pole) rotates around the
magnetic current and that the single magnetic charge (pole)
rotates around the electric current (Oersted-Ampere).

In my recent measurements of single magnetic charges on
microscopic particles, I separated the influence of light from
the influence of the magnetic field by measuring these charges
in the dark (Ref. 12). I further investigated again the
ponderomotive force of light upon matter. If one introduces and
allows to fall into a vertically projected beam particles of,
for instance, Cr, Fe, Mn, Cu2O, those of a size of
about the wavelength of light and smaller fall vertically, while
those of more than the wavelength of light in size describe in
falling distinct helical paths in the beam of light, as already
observed by me and my school in Vienna and Whytlaw-Gray
(Leeds)(Ref. 8) in the horizontal beam. Whytlaw-Gray has
repeated my experiments and obtained identical results.

In my recent experiments made with Richard Whitall it was
determined that often the bodies made five to ten revolutions
per second around the axis of the helix, and the radius of this
helical path is exceedingly large compared with the radius of
the body. These facts can be easily understood. Optically active
substances rotate the plane of polarization of light, and
Faraday (1845) succeeded in rotating the plane of polarization
by applying a magnetic field parallel to the beam.

The helical paths have been observed with linear polarized
light as well as with natural light, and without parallel
external magnetic field. This is to be expected, since the light
scattered by a spherical body is for the most part linear
polarized, and since our magneto-photophoresis experiments
demonstrate that in the direction of the light beam there exists
a static longitudinal magnetic field analogous to the
electrostatic field therein produced by Woldemar Voigt (Ref.
13). These fields can explain in some respect electro- and
magneto-photophoresis with the movement of electrically charged
bodies in the longitudinal magnetic field of the beam of light.
Concerning the helical movement in the beam of light, the
electric charge rotates around the longitudinal magnetic field
and vice versa.

The helical movement of particles observed by me and
Whytlaw-Gray cannot be explained by the formulation of
Maxwell-Poynting, on which point of view G.F. Hull has based his
work on light pressure.

It has been found that light rotates matter, if matter is free
to move with 3 degrees of freedom. The well-known principles of
conservation of linear and angular momentum of electrodynamics
(Poincare, Max Abraham) do not cover the experimental facts that
light can exert forces of attraction, repulsion and torsion.
Regarding the general theoretical conclusions it is evident that
we have to add to the electrodynamic equations the expression
for the true single magnetic charge and therefore the term for
the magnetic current (Ref. 14). The formulations have to be
broadened in such a way as to include the three actions listed
above.

These observed actions require a modification of the relation E
= MC^2, pronounced for the first time by Hasenoehrl (1904) for
the radiation of black bodies (Ref. 15), generalized later on,
as well as a revision of the more modern concepts which have
been derived from the enunciation of A. Soldner (1801), entitled
About the Deflection of a Beam of Light from its Rectilinear
Movement through the Attraction of a Celestial Body Near Which
the Beam Passes (Ref. 16). In considering astrophysical
questions it is clear that one must take into account not only
the repulsive force of radiation but also the attractive and
rotational forces.

**References ~**

(1) Comment on Gordon F. Hulls articles, The Torque or
Rotating Axtion in a Beam of Light; *Science* 101: 220
(1945)

(2) P. Lebedew: Astr. Ges. St. Petersbourg 37: 220 (1902)

(3) E. Nichols and G. Hull: *Ann. der Phys.* 12: 223
(1903); F. Ehrenhaft, *Ann. der Phys.* 56: 103 (1918); *ibid*.,
13: 171 (1940)

(4) D. Konstantinowsky: *Phys. Zeitshcr.* 21: 698 (1920)

(5) F. Ehrenhaft: *Wiener Akad. Anz.* VII (March 4,
1909); *ibid.*, X (April 21, 1910); *Wiener Berichte*
119: 815 (1910); *Physik. Zeitschr*. 11: 619 (1910), etc.;
*Phys. Zeit.* 39: 673 (1938); *Philosophy of Science*
(NYC) vol. 8 (July 3, 1941).

(6) K. Przibram: *Physik. Zeit.* 11: 630 (1910)

(7) F. Ehrenhaft: *Ann. der Physik*. 56: 81 (1918); *Comptes
Rendu* 190: 263 (1930); *Ann. de Physique* 13: 151
(1940); *J. Franklin Inst*. 233: 235 (1942)

(8) R. Whitlaw-Gray and H. Patterson: *Leeds Phil. Lit.
Science*, Sect. 1,p. 70 (1926)

(9) F. Ehrenhaft: *J. Franklin Inst.* 233: 239 (1942)

(10) F. Ehrenhaft and Leo Banet: *Science* 96: 228 (1942)

(11) F. Ehrenhaft: Nature 154: 426 (1944); *Phys. Rev*.
65: 287 (1944)

(12) F. Ehrenhaft: Bull. *Amer. Phys. Soc*. (NY Meeting,
1945). See H. Renne: *Radio Electronic Engineering (Radio
News)* 4: 22 (1945)

(13) W. Voigt: *Festschrift fuer Heinrich Weber* (1912)

(14) Oliver Heaviside: *Electromagnetic Theory* 1: 25
(1893)

(15) F. Hasenoehrl: *Ann. der Physik.* 15: 344 (1904);
ibid, 16: 589 (1905)

(16) A. Soldner: *Bodes Astronom. Jahrbuch* 161-172
(1804)

---

**(9) *The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin
Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science,* Series 7,
vol. 5 (# 28), February 1928), pp. 225-241.**

**"New Evidence of the Existence of Charges
Smaller than the Electron"**

**Felix Ehrenhaft**

**[Excerpt]**

*Section 2: The Micromagnet ~*

In the following measurements the circular poles of an
Ehrenhaft condenser of the diameter of 9 mm were rebuilt into
poles of a strong electromagnet. The upper plate consists of a
hollow cylinder of soft iron with an external diameter of 9 mm.
and an internal diameter of 2 mm. Into this is introduced an
electric insulated solid cylinder of the same iron with a
diameter of 1 mm. These cylinders can be brought to various
electric potentials. The lower plate ends in a conical iron pin,
2 mm thick, which has a circular base with a diameter of 1 mm.
The pin is surrounded by a mantle of brass with a diameter of 9
mm, so that its base lies in the same plane as that of the pin.
The described condenser plates go over into two iron cores (12
mm thick, 190 mm long), each of which is wound with 14 layers of
2 mm copper wire. An accumulator battery of 120volts
cross-potential and very great capacity furnishes a quite
constant current. The number of ampere turns per 1 cm is 1080.
The two cores are closed by an iron yoke which is insulated from
them by leaves of mica. In this way the plates can also be used
as an electrical condenser. Four coolers fed with flowing water,
two for each core, provide for a sufficient removal of the heat
and hold the temperature constant. When the windings are
connected with the electrical circuit, there are produced two
opposite magnetic poles in the vertical x axis. In this way we
get a symmetrical inhomogeneous magnetic field between the
plates of an Ehrenhaft condenser, which are at a distance of 1.8
mm apart.   
    
 

![](d1.gif)

---

**Keelynet Discussion Notes:**

**Felix Ehrenhaft: Micro-Magnet &
Sub-Electron**

http://www.keelynet.com/interact/archive/00001672.htm.*( 29 Nov 1999)*

The premiere investigator into the effect of magnets to
promote dissociation of water was Professor Ehrenhaft. This
ties in with Stan Meyers claims of 'fractioning' water and
Randoll Mills claims of a 'hydrino' which is based on a
fractional hydrogen charge...kind of a SUB-isotope of
hydrogen.

http://paranetinfo.com/mainbbs/space/TESLA.TXT

Ehrenhaft discovered and reported fractional charges for
years, in the 30's and 40's, and was ignored. See P.A.M.
Dirac, "Development of the Physicist's Conception of Nature",
*Symposium on the Development of the Physicist's Conception
of Nature*, ed. Jagdish Merha, D. Reidel, Boston, 1973,
pp. 12-14 for a presentation of some of Ehrenhaft's results.
Within the last few years Stanford University researchers have
also positively demonstrated the existence of "fractional
charge." For a layman's description of their work, see "A
Spector Haunting Physics," Science News, Vol. 119, January 31,
1981, pp. 68-69. Indeed, Dirac in his referenced article
points out that Millikan himself -- in his original oildrop
experiments -- reported one measurement of fractional charge,
but discounted it as probably due to error.

http://www.centuryinter.net/tjs11/bus/magnh2o.htm

For his "impossible" experiment, Dr. Ehrenhaft employs the
simplest of apparatus. Two shiny rods of pure Swedish iron,
sealed in holes through opposite sides of a U-shaped tube,
resemble a setup familiar to high-school students for breaking
up water into hydrogen and oxygen gases by passing electricity
through it. And that is exactly what would happen if Dr.
Ehrenhaft attached electric wires from a battery to the rods.
But he does no such thing.

Instead, he uses the iron rods as pole pieces, or "north" and
"south" ends, of a magnet -- either an electromagnet or a
permanent magnet. Bubbles of gas rise through the twin columns
of acidulated water, to be collected and analyzed. As might be
expected, nearly all of the gas is hydrogen, liberated by a
commonplace chemical interaction between the iron rods and the
dilute sulfuric acid, one percent by volume, in the water. But
the phenomenal part of the experiment is that oxygen also
turns up, Dr. Ehrenhaft recently told the American Physical
Society.

To be specific, it is found in clearly measurable proportions
ranging from two to 12 percent of the total volume of gases.
When the gases obtained with a permanent magnet are separated,
the larger proportion of oxygen is found above the north pole
of the magnet. After rigorous precautions -- including
short-circuiting the magnet poles with wire, so that the poles
will be at the same electric potential -- Dr. Ehrenhaft
concludes that there is only one place the oxygen can possibly
come from. And that is from water decomposed with a magnet!
Without a magnet, pure hydrogen is evolved.

---

**http://www.sciencenews.org/sn\_arch/10\_5\_96/timeline.htm**

"SMALLER THAN ELECTRON"

New evidence that there is another world of almost infinite
minuteness, beyond the electron which only recently replaced
the atom as the smallest thing in the universe, was brought
forward by Prof. Felix Ehrenhaft of Vienna University at the
meeting of the Association of German Natural Scientists and
Physicians.

Prof. Ehrenhaft's data were obtained by means of a new and
highly powerful apparatus for the ultramicroscopic examination
devised by himself, which makes possible the observation of
particles far below the limits of ordinary microscopic
visibility, floating freely in a gaseous atmosphere in a
magnetic field.

He observed in this magnetized submicroscopic field the
behavior of globular bits of gaseous selenium with diameters
of only 1/250,000 of an inch. Their rate of drift, under the
influence of the magnet, indicated that the electric charges
they carried were less than the equivalent of one electron.
This would indicate, according to Prof. Ehrenhaft, that the
electron is subdivisible, and therefore, that something
smaller than the electron exists.

---

**http://faculty.millikin.edu/~jaskill.nsm.faculty.mu/e.html**

Ehrenhaft was a supporter of the traditional view of matter,
while Millikan held the view that matter was atomic in nature.
Ehrenhafts experiment used colloids and ultrascopic Brownian
motion of individual fragments of metal. He was the first to
determine a value for the electronic charge of 1.5 x 10 -19
C in 1909.

Millikan, using his famous oil drop experiment, published an
initial result in 1910, giving the charge on the electron a
value of 1.3 x 10-19 C.

Subsequently, Ehrenhaft showed that his results indicated
fractions of the electronic charge of 1/2, 1/5, 1/10, and
1/100 existed. At the time, no one was able to disprove
Ehrenhafts results or substantiate them. However, by 1913,
Millikan had perfected his oil drop experiment and had
concluded that the electronic charge had a singular value of
1.591 x 10-19 C.

Millikans experimental results soon gathered the support of
the most eminent physicists of the time including Planck and
Einstein, and the atomic view of matter prevailed. He was
awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1923 for his work on
measuring the charge on the electron. The best current value
for the charge on the electron is e = 1.60217733 x 10 -19
C.

---

**http://www.wmich.edu/ethics/ESC/cs2.html**

An examination of Millikan's own papers and notebooks reveals
that he picked and chose among his drops. That is, he
exercised discrimination with respect to which drops he would
include in published accounts of the value of e, leaving many
out. Sometimes he mentioned this fact, and sometimes he did
not.

Of particular concern is the fact that in his 1913 paper,
presenting the most complete account of his measurements of
the charge on the electron, Millikan states &quotIt is to
be remarked that this is not a selected group of drops but
represents all of the drops experimented upon during 60
consecutive days."

Millikan's notebook appears to contradict this assertion. Of
189 observations during the period in question, only 140 are
presented in the paper.

Millikan's results were contested by Felix Ehrenhaft, of the
University of Vienna, who claimed to have found
"subelectrons." Moreover, Ehrenhaft   
claimed that his finding was in fact confirmed by some of
Millikan's own data -- droplets that Millikan had mentioned
but discounted in his published writings.

The result was a decades-long controversy, the "Battle over
the Electron," over whether or not there existed subelectrons,
or electrons with charges of different values. This
controversy makes an excellent case study because we are
fortunate, thanks to Millikan's notebooks, to be able to see
very specifically which drops he included and which he did
not.

In retrospect, we know that Millikan was "right" and
Ehrenhaft "wrong." Electrons, to the best of our present
experimental and theoretical knowledge, have a specific,
discrete charge.

Those scientists and other scholars who have carefully
reviewed this case have failed to agree on whether Millikan
was guilty of unethical behavior or "bad science" in the
treatment and presentation of his data.

---

**Publications by Felix Ehrenhaft**

"Photophoresis and the Influence upon it of Electric and
Magnetic fields", *Philosophical. Mag*. 11 (1931),140-146

"Physical and Astronomical information Concerning Particles of
the Order of Magnitude of the Wavelength of Light", *J.
Franklin Institute*, vol 230: 381-393 (Sept. 1940)

( and Banet, Leo): "Is there a true magnetism or not", *Philosophy
of.
Science* 8 (1941), 458-462

"Stationary Electric and Magnetic Fields in Beams of Light", *Nature*
147: 25 (Jan. 4, 1941).

"Photophoresis and Its Interpretation by Electric and Magnetic
Ions", *J. Franklin Institute*, vol 233 (March 1942), pp.
235-255.

"The Magnetic Current", *Science* 94: 232-233 (Sept 5,
1941).

(and Banet, Leo): "The Magnetic Ion", *Science* 96:
228-229 (Sept. 4, 1942).

"The Magnetic Current in Gases", *Physical Review* 61:
733 (1942).

"Decomposition of Matter Through the Magnet (Magnetolysis)", *Physical
Review* 63: 216 (1943).

"Magnetolysis and the Electric Field Around the Magnetic
Current", *Physical Review* 63: 461-462 (1943).

"Further Facts Concerning the magnetic Current", *Physical
Review* 64: 43 (1943).

"New Experiments about the Magnetic Current", *Physical
Review* 65: 62-63 (1944).

"Continuation of Experiments with the Magnetic Current", *Physical
Review* 65: 256 (1944).

"The Decomposition of Water by the So-Called Permanent
Magnet...", *Physical Review* 65: 287-289 (May 1944).

"The Magnetic Current", *Nature* 154: 426-427 (Sept. 30,
1944)

---

  