820 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 
The whele of this statement, if made, is incorrect; but as Mr. 
Hearder says he could not help giving credence to it, it follows that 
he cannot really believe me guilty of appropriating his contrivances, 
although he has accused me of doing so. Mr. Hearder appears to 
think that J have acknowledged his claim to priority; I have done 
nothing of the kind; I merely consider the claim unworthy of dis- 
pute, and not of sufficient importance to occupy any space in your 
Journal. 
Mr. Hearder wishes to know by what means I ascertained that 
my contact-breaker vibrated 2000 times a second, and suggests that 
I have added a cipher too many. The mere fact that my machine 
can be made to act ten times more rapidly than he imagined, shows 
that our instruments work differently, although Mr. Hearder will not 
admit any difference in their construction. 
The method adopted to ascertain the rate of vibration was simply 
to press a card upon the periphery of a toothed wheel, which was 
rotated rapidly until the musical sound emitted by the card was in 
unison with the tone which was produced at the contact-breaker ; 
the number of teeth on the wheel, multiplied by its revolutions per 
second, gave the number of vibrations for that particular sound, 
which was 200 x 10=2000. 
These rapid movements need not excite surprise, as small springs 
have vibrated before the poles’ of electro-magnets 20,000 times a 
second, 
If Mr. Hearder’s statements about the coils which he exhibited in 
London be correct, I am not the only one deceived in their construc- 
tion, for all those to whom I had spoken onthe subject had formed 
the same opinion as I had of their structure. 
Mr. Hearder seems determined to do what he can to deprive me 
of any slight credit I may deserve, and he does not seem particular 
about the means he adopts todoso. He first tries to make my coil 
the jvint production of Mr. Shuter and myself; then he accuses me 
of having copied his machine. 
It is evident that if I made my coil after Mr. Hearder’s pattern, I 
could not have been indebted to Mr. Shuter for his assistance, yet 
Mr. Hearder says he believes I was. Mr. Hearder also intimates 
that my name ought not to be associated with the improved induc- 
tion coils; I suggested this myself in my January communication, 
and said that my coil, and those made by others, ought still to be 
called Ruhmkorff’s coils. 
I am, Gentlemen, 
Your obedient Servant, 
C. A. BenTLeEy. 
[Our readers, we doubt not, see very clearly the respective merits of 
our correspondents, and the origin of their difference as to the ques- 
tion of priority. We hope the discussion will terminate here. Each 
of our correspondents has his coil. The next question is, to what 
good purpose is he about to turn it? The man who does most with 
his instrument will eventually stand highest,—J, T.] 
