This was the
very first true measurement of the specific inductive capacity of a
dielectric which had been made after the discovery by Faraday of
the existence of the property, and his primitive measurement of it
for the three substances, glass, shellac, and sulphur; and at the
time when Jenkin made his measurements the existence of specific
inductive capacity was either unknown, or ignored, or denied, by
almost all the scientific authorities of the day.
The original determination of the microfarad, brought out under the
auspices of the British Association Committee on Electrical
Standards, is due to experimental work by Jenkin, described in a
paper, 'Experiments on Capacity,' constituting No. IV. of the
appendix to the Report presented by the Committee to the Dundee
Meeting of 1867. No other determination, so far as I know, of this
important element of electric measurement has hitherto been made;
and it is no small thing to be proud of in respect to Jenkin's fame
as a scientific and practical electrician that the microfarad which
we now all use is his.
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