Ampère admits that the action of the circuit on the movable part of C′ is the same as if the fixed part of C′ did not exist, and therefore as if the current passing through the movable part were an open current. He concluded that the action of a closed on an open current, or vice versâ, that of an open current on a fixed current, may give rise to continuous rotation. But this conclusion depends on the hypothesis which I have enunciated, and to which, as I said above, Helmholtz declined to subscribe.
4. Mutual Action of Two Open Currents.—As far as the mutual action of two open currents, and in particular that of two elements of current, is concerned, all experiment breaks down. Ampère falls back on hypothesis. He assumes: (1) that the mutual action of two elements reduces to a force acting along their join; (2) that the action of two closed currents is the resultant of the mutual actions of their different elements, which are the same as if these elements were isolated.
The remarkable thing is that here again Ampère makes two hypotheses without being aware of it. However that may be, these two hypotheses, together with the experiments on closed currents, suffice to determine completely the law of mutual action of two elements. But then, most of the simple laws we have met in the case of closed currents are no longer true. In the first place, there is no electro-dynamical potential; nor was there any, as we have seen, in the case of a closed
