254 DISCHARGE OF ELECTKICITY. 



alternating ciiireuts could pass with the same facility as steady cur- 

 rents from an electrolite to a metal. To try this two equal beakers were 

 tilled with the same electrolyte made of such strength that when in- 

 serted in B they i)ut out the discharge in A. I then placed in one 

 beaker six ebonite diaphragms arranged so as to stop the eddy cur- 

 rents, and a similar metallic diaphragm in the other. The ebonite 

 diaphragm made the beaker in which it was placed cease to have any 

 effect upon the dis(;harge in A. I could not detect however that the 

 effect of the beaker in which the metal diaphragm was placed on the 

 discharge in A was at all diminished by the introduction of the dia- 

 phragm. I conclude therefore that very rapidly alternating currents 

 can pass with facility from electrolytes to metals and vice versa. In this 

 respect electrolytes differ from gases, the currents in which, as we have 

 seen, are stopped by a metallic diaphragm in the same way as they would 

 be by an ebonite one. 



It may be useful to observe in passing that a somewhat minute divi- 

 sion of the electrolyte by the non-conducting diaphragm is necessary 

 to stop the effect of the eddy currents; a division of the electrolytes 

 into two or three portions seemed to produce very little effect. 



Another point wiiich is brought out by these experiments is the great 

 conductivity of raritied gases when no electrodes are used as compared 

 with that of electrolytes. An exhausted bulb will produce as much 

 effect on the discharge in A as the same bull) tilled with a solution of 

 an electrolyte containing about a hundred thousand times as many 

 molecules of electrolyte. The molecular conductivity of raritied gases 

 when the electro-motive intensity is very great and when no electrodes 

 are used must be thus enormously greater than that of electrolytes. 



Bulbs filled with raritied gas used in the way I have described serve 

 as galvanometers, by which we can estimate roughly the relative in- 

 tensity of the current tlowiug through the inimary coils which encircle 

 them. Used for this purpose 1 have found them very useful in some 

 experiments on which 1 am at present engaged, on the distribution of 

 very rai)idly alternating currents among a net- work of conductors. 



