154 HOUSTOX, KENNELLY — THE PATH OF A CURRENT. [Mar. 19, 



and is not due, as the old theory supposed, to an assumed current 

 in the wire. The passage of the electric flux over the wires consti- 

 tutes a momentary electric current, which in this case would have a 

 strength of roughly two amperes. The velocity with which the flux 

 blocks move in Fig. 6, is the velocity of light in air ; approximately, 

 300,000 kilometres per second. If the distance from E, to the ends 

 of the wires is exactly 300 kilometres each way, the metre blocks of 





■■' \-v-^M^-l. ^ / 



• ••• ^\ .^■ -.^^-^-J^is, .•'^- •■' "^ . 



Fig. 7. — Magnetic Flux Accompanying Moving Electric Flux between Two Par- 

 allel Wires. 



flux will traverse this distance in y^Q-th of a second. The metre 

 blocks will, therefore, pass by any particular point on the line in 

 "3o"o"."oTo",oTo^^^ of a second, and the electric current, which this flux 

 rush constitutes, would, therefore, have this duration at any particu- 

 lar point. 



Fig. 8, represents the metre blocks of flux in the act of arriv- 

 ing at the termini of the line. The two conductors are open-cir- 



