Nipher — The Nature of Electrical Discharge. 87 



creeping effect, if tlie wire is not in contact with the edge 

 of the tube. In all cases the ends of the wire drop 

 slightly, at the instant when the discharge passes. 



The fact that the creeping of the wire occurs under 

 these conditions, shows very conclusively that this result 

 is not due to a difTerential end thrust resulting from 

 point discharges from the ends of the wire into the air. 



The only rational explanation which suggests itself is, 

 that it is a reversal of the Rowland effect referred to in 

 the body of this paper. This also involves the assump- 

 tion that a wire having a positive charge is one from 

 which negative cori^uscles have been drained. The creep- 

 ing wire is a solid aggregation of positive ions. It is 

 a positive column. Like the positive column of the Geiss- 

 ler tube it may have in it striations. Here, however, 

 these striations are waves in the corpuscular nebula 

 which pervades the conducting column. 



