PART II. POLAR MAGNETIC PHENOMENA AND TERRELLA EXPERIMENTS. CHAP. V. 659 



In the course of these experiments, however, my attention was directed more and more towards 

 he normal metal deposit which wcas thrown with special abundance and evenness upon the cylindrical 

 heet of glass, right in front of, and nearest to, the strip of palladium. 



It seems as if it might be worth while to experiment with a mica shade with a slit in it, placed 

 Imost over the palladium-sheet, to see whether any deflection of the corpuscles could be demonstrated 

 i this way. The corpuscles moved here almost at right angles to the magnetic lines of force, therefore 

 chances of a deflection were very much greater than in the above-mentioned investigations. I shall 

 eturn to these experiments in a subsequent article. 



Now even if corpuscle-rays were so stiff that we could only bend them slightly with our strongest 

 lagnets, a planet with a magnetic moment such as, for instance, that of the earth, would easily compel 

 uch rays, emitted from equatorial regions, always to move near the plane of the planet's magnetic equator. 



It has been shown that the material particles that are thrown off from a magnetised globe that is 

 athode in a vacuum-tube, are thrown off by preference near the plane of its magnetic equator like the 

 Icctric rays. This can be seen upon a sheet of glass placed near the globe, the glass being blackened 

 i such a manner as to make it improbable that any mere evaporation can produce the disintegration. 



It is my opinion therefore, that in analogy with this, Saturn throws off tons of matter every day 

 i the plane of the rings, and that it did so to a still greater extent formerly. The rings are renewed, 

 o to speak, every moment. I have indeed gone so far in my hypothesis -- as my notes to Comptes 

 lendus de 1' Academic des Sciences show ( J ) as to assume that the moons were originally formed from 

 uch electrically ejected matter, just as the planets from matter electrically thrown off from the sun. 



Whether Saturn's rings consist of radiant matter or of electrically ejected material particles, they 

 .-ill certainly diffuse and absorb the light of the sun, and thus give rise to light-effects and shadow- 

 >rmations similar to those now observed. Even if the ring consisted only of electrically luminescent 

 aseous atoms, there is reason to suppose, as shown above on p. 523, that it would cast a shadow. 



I would especially refer the reader to the observations at Kaafjord, where it must be assumed that 

 ic rapidly-changing cloud-formations were not real, ordinary clouds, but were electrically luminescent 

 iry masses that had the power of reflecting and absorbing solar light, and thus had the appearance of clouds. 



Auroral arcs, observed at night, have been seen after daybreak as arches of cloud ; and it is 

 ossible that this is a corresponding phenomenon. 



My explanation of Saturn's rings may also be looked upon as an extension of MAXWELL'S theory, 

 n attempt to indicate the manner in which the fine cosmic dust in the ring has formed round Saturn. 



By spectroscopic examination of Saturn's ring, KEELER^), as is known, has shown that the various 

 arts of the rings rotate in accordance with Kepler's third law. These results can be made to agree 



I 1 ) Comptes Rendus, 7 aout 1911: Les anneaux de Saturne sont-ils dus a line radiation electrique de la planete? 



C. R., 21 aout 1911: Le soleil et ses laches. 



C. R., 4 septembre 1911: Sur la constitution electrique du soleil. 



C. R., 13 novembre 1911: Phenomenes celestes et analogies experimentales. 

 ('I Astrophys. Journ., vol. I, 1895, p. 416. 



