Oy RADIANT MATTER. 



163 



If the streams of radiant matter carry an electric current, they will 

 act like two parallel conducting wires and attract one another ; but if 

 they are simply built up of negatively electrified molecules, they will 

 repel each other. 



I will first connect the upper negative pole {a) with the coil, and 

 you see the ray shooting along the line d, f. I now bring the lower 

 negative pole {b) into play, and another line {e, h) darts along the 

 screen. But notice the way the first line behaves : it jumps up from 

 its first position, df, to d r/, showing that it is repelled, and if time 

 permitted I could show you that the lower ray is also deflected from 

 its normal direction : therefore the two parallel streams of radiant 

 matter exert mutual repulsion, acting not like current carriers, but 

 merely as similarly electrified bodies. 



Radiant Matter produces Heat when its Motion is arrested. — Dur- 

 ing these experiments another property of radiant matter has made 

 itself evident, although I have not yet drawn attention to it. The 

 glass gets very warm where the green phosphorescence is strongest. 

 The molecular focus on the tube, which Ave saw earlier in the evening 

 (Fig. 8), is intensely hot, and I have prepared an apparatus by which 

 this heat at the focus can be rendered apparent to all present. 



I have here a small tube (Fig. 19, «) with a cup-shaped negative 

 pole. This cup projects the rays to a focus 

 in the middle of the tube. At the side of 

 the tube is a small electro-magnet, which I 

 can set in action by touching a key, and 

 the focus is then drawn to the side of the 

 glass tube (Fig. 19, i.) To show the first 

 action of the heat, I have coated the tube 

 with wax. I will put the apparatus in 

 front of the electric lantern (Fig. 20, r7), 

 and throw a magnified image of the tube 

 on the screen. The coil is now at work, 

 and the focus of molecular rays is projected 

 along the tube. I turn the magnetism on, 

 and draw the focus to the side of the glass. 

 The first thing you see is a small circu- 

 lar patch melted in the coating of wax. 

 The glass soon begins to disintegrate, and 

 cracks are shooting star wise from the cen- 

 ter of heat. The glass is softening. Now the atmospheric pressure 

 forces it in, and now it melts. A hole [e] is perforated in the middle, 

 the air rushes in, and the experiment is at an end. 



I can render this focal heat more evident if I allow it to play on a 

 piece of metal. This bulb (Fig. 21) is furnished with a negative pole in 

 the form of a cup (a). The rays will therefore be projected to a focus 

 on a piece of iridio platinum {h) supported in the* center of the bulb. 



b 





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