The apparatus consists of a round wooden platform (diameter 15.8 cm) with three levelling screws, at the centre of which there is a round cup held by a well-lathed wooden column.
A cylindrical magnet which penetrates through the platform from bottom to top terminates at the north pole, which is rounded, slightly higher than the edge of the cup. The latter is filled with mercury up to as certain height, thus leaving a small amount of the magnet uncovered, and is connected, by means of a thick brass wire, to a small cup, it too brass, which when full of mercury is used for connecting it to one of the poles of a pile.
A long brass column is also connected to the platform. It is curved at the top so that a screw that goes through it transversally at the extremity falls along the vertical passing through the centre of the cup. At the top, there is a small brass cup which, when filled with mercury, is used to connect it to the other pole of the pile and terminates beneath with a support in the form of a small semi-spherical basket with a hole in the bottom; in the basket there is the spherical head of a metal rod (missing) which passes through the hole and remains suspended, almost touching the rounded edge of the cylindrical magnet. ...continues