The Standard Electrical Dictionary

1. Magnetic Lines of Force

   Lines of force indicating the distribution of magnetic force, which is due presumably to whirls of the ether. A wire or conductor through which a current is passing is surrounded by an electro-magnetic field of force, q. v., whose lines of force form circles surrounding the conductor in question. A magnet marks the existence of a similar electro-magnetic field of force whose lines form circuits comprising part of and in some places all of the body of the magnet, and which are completed through the air or any surrounding paramagnetic or diamagnetic body. They may be thought of as formed by the Ampérian sheet of current, and analogous to those just mentioned as surrounding a conductor.