1894.] VEEDER — SOLAR ELECTRICAL ENERGY. 245 



In Biology, C. W. Dodge ; Botany, Florence Beckwith ; Chem- 

 istry, J. M. Davison ; Electricity, J. E Putnam ; 'Engineering. ]. Y. 

 McClintock ; Geology, H. L. Fairchild ; Hygiene, E. V. Stoddard ; 

 Mathematics, A. L. Baker ; Medicine, M. L. Mallory ; Meteorology, 

 M. A. Veeder ; Physics, A. L. Arey ; Physiology, J. L. Roseboom ; 

 Zoology, Henry A. Ward. 



The following paper was read : 



SOLAR ELECTRICAL ENERGY NOT TRANSMITTED BY 



RADIATION. 



By M. a. Veeder. 



Radiation consists essentially of the divergence from common 

 points of origin of minute wave motions traversing the ether of space. 

 The medium in which these motions occur is beyond the reach of 

 direct observation by any of our senses, and its motions are known 

 to us only by the effects which they produce upon material 

 substances. Light rays are themselves unseen although they make 

 surrounding objects visible. Heat radiations which produce warmth 

 as they fall upon the surface of the earth have no such effect upon 

 the void of interplanetary space. Chemical rays are inoperative save 

 only as they fall upon materials sensitive to their impulse. The thing 

 that is conveyed in all these cases is simply a mode of motion of the 

 ether. It is not light or heat or chemical force that is transferred 

 through space but a system of pulsations which are capable of origin- 

 ating by direct contact the phenomena of color, visibility, heat or 

 chemical changes, as the case may be, in bodies having the requisite 

 physical properties. Even vital action may be caused by the impulse 

 of such radiations, as is seen in the growth of plants exposed to light 

 and heat, but it does not follow that vitality is a property of the ether. 



The same distinction obtains in connection with such electrical 

 effects as attend the impact of ether waves upon particular substances. 

 Electricity is not a property of the ether in this sense at all, and there 

 is no conveyance of electrical force whatever, but only of wave 

 motions which are capable of having electrical effects under certain 

 conditions, the same as all other forms of motion are capable of 

 disturbing pre-existing electrical equilibrium even while incapable of 

 the origination or conveyance of electrical force. Thus the faintest 

 whisper falling upon the receiver of a telephone starts currents which 

 are plainly perceptible. The atmospheric sound waves in such a case 

 are not themselves electrical but in virtue of their motion, simply, 



