These men, however, did not
work alone. Numbers of scientific men joined the Magnetic Union,
learned the use of the new instruments and the new methods of reducing
the observations; and in every city of Europe you might see them, at
certain stated times, sitting, each in his cold wooden shed, with his
eye fixed at the telescope, his ear attentive to the clock, and his
pencil recording in his note-book the instantaneous position of the
suspended magnet.
Bacon's conception of "Experiments in concert" was thus realised, the
scattered forces of science were converted into a regular army, and
emulation and jealousy became out of place, for the results obtained
by any one observer were of no value till they were combined with
those of the others.
The increase in the accuracy and completeness of magnetic observations
which was obtained by the new method, opened up fields of research
which were hardly suspected to exist by those whose observations of
the magnetic needle had been conducted in a more primitive manner.
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