WIRELESS TRANSMISSION OF ENERGY THOMSON. 247 



the density and directions of electrostatic stresses in the electrostatic 

 field where one wire will be positive while the other is negative. If, 

 as before, the ends of the wire are free or open-circuited, no energy 

 is transmitted, and the mere static stress exists. If, however, the 

 wires are connected through an instrument receiving energy or utiliz- 

 ing the energy, then the magnetic system is developed, surrounding 

 each wire and passing between the wires, and on the establishment 

 of any given current these lines accumulate at a rapid rate until, in a 

 small fraction of a second usually, a limit is reached. The magnetic 

 field may then be said to be fully developed. Outside of the pair of 

 wires the magnetic disturbance extends to very great distances, but 

 is necessarily weak far away. The magnetic whorls in this case do 

 not center themselves in circular paths around the wires and at equal 

 distances therefrom, but between the wires they are more condensed 

 or pushed toward the wires 

 themselves — crowded, so to 

 speak — while outside of the 

 wires they expand (figs. 8 

 and 9). It must be remem- 

 bered that these lines of force 

 are merely symbols for what 

 may be likened to a magnetic 

 atmosphere. They indicate 

 the density and direction of 

 certain actions in the ether, 

 called magnetic. It will be 

 important to note, both in 

 wire and wireless transmis- 

 sion, that the energy is trans- 

 ferred in the surrounding me- 

 dium. The wire in ordinary wire transmission is, in fact, a sort of 

 guiding center or core around which this ether disturbance carrying 

 the energy exists. The wire may be bent or coiled, expanded or con- 

 tracted without altering the essential nature of the process. So far, 

 then, ordinary wire transmission is really a case of wireless transmis- 

 sion, with the wire for a guiding core for the energy (fig. 10). 



It would take us too far to attempt to explain or theorize on the 

 modern view of tlie passage of electrons in the wire forming the 

 current, and the field they carry with and about them in giving 

 rise to the stresses in the ether surrounding them. Suffice it to say 

 that a moving electron must not only be accompanied or surrounded 

 by the static stress field which it produces in the ether but also by 

 a magnetic efi^ect representing the energy of motion possessed by it. 

 When a current which has been started in a circuit reaches a definite 

 value it may be said to have reached a steady state. It would then 



