134 On the Action of the Magnet upon the Electrical Discharge. 



45. On discharging Rub mkorflf's apparatus through Geissler's 

 tubes, the two electrodes are most certainly distinguished from 

 one another by their simple appearance. The platinum elec- 

 trode at one end of the tube glows; at the other, brightly- 

 luminous points appear upon the wire. 



The glowing platinum wire is covered with a finely stratified 

 luminous envelope, around which is formed the magnetic atmo- 

 sphere of light bordered by a dark space. 



If we attempt to bring the above experiments in accordance 

 with statical electricity, we must assume that the electrode at 

 which warmth is chiefly manifested is the negative electrode, in 

 direct contradiction to the hypothesis universally received since 

 the experiments of Neefi", that warmth is most abundantly ma- 

 nifested at the positive and primary (pritnares), light at the nega- 

 tive electrode : in contradiction also to many experiments with 

 the battery ; for instance, to the observation given in a note at 

 the end of the first part of this paper, concerning the fusion to 

 a sphere of a platinum wire serving as positive electrode in con- 

 tact with mercury. 



46. Misled for a moment by such contradictions (M. De la 

 Rive also adduces such contradictions), I yet soon completely 

 satisfied myself that in our experiments that electrode which 

 glows, and at which the magnetic atmosphere of light appears, is 

 really the negative one. For, first, on repeating Neefi'^s experi- 

 ments under the microscope, with the weakened current of 

 Ruhmkorff's apparatus, light and warmth appeared exactly as 

 on the discharge through Geissler^s tubes, that is just in the 

 reverse way to that given by Neefi^. Still the phsenomenon is 

 very variable with difi'erent degrees of weakness of the current, 

 so that the phsenomenon of NeefF appears to be a complex one. 

 Secondly, on referring to the construction of Ruhmkoi-ff's appa- 

 ratus, in which the induced current in the thin wire which is 

 alone employed in our experiments agrees with the direction of 

 the inducing current, it follows that the discharge-current passes 

 through the tube towards the warmth-electrode. Thirdly, the 

 electrometer proves the presence of free electricity during the 

 discharge as well as at other times, at the end of the induced- 

 current wire (most strongly at the outer end of the wire). This 

 free electricity is negative at the warmth-pole where the luminous 

 atmosphere is situated, in agreement with the expermients which 

 were performed with frictional electricity. In the fourth place, 

 the aberrations of the discharge-current in Geissler's tubes, de- 

 scribed in the first part of this paper, all correspond with the hypo- 

 thesis that this current passes towards the warmth-pole, where is 

 formed the atmosphere of light. In order to prove this directly, 

 instead of the discharge-current passing through a Geissler tube 



