VIBRATIONS OF AIR AND ETHER. 63 



CHAPTER IX. 



CORRESPONDING VIBRATIONS TRANSMITTED BY THE 

 ATMOSPHERIC AND THE ELECTRIC ETHER. 



TV/TECH AN ICAL impulses imparted to the par- 

 ticles of air are transmitted in currents as 

 winds ; and in vibrations, as sounds. Imparted to 

 the electric ether they are similarly transmitted in 

 currents and in vibrations. The interchangeable 

 vibrations and current movements of the electric 

 and atmospheric ethers are illustrated in the oper- 

 ation of the Telephone. Impulses of the voice as 

 words, or musical sounds, excite corresponding syn- 

 chronous vibrations of the atmospheric and electric 

 ethers, producing similar vibrations of a metallic 

 disc connected with telegraph wires, through which 

 they pass in currents to a second, or terminal, disc. 

 This last in turn transfers them to the adjacent 

 particles of air, which vibrate on the tympanum 

 of the ear. A little bony malleus, hung against 

 the tympanum like a knocker on a door, intensi- 

 fies the excitation of the electric ether pervading 

 the conducting nerve leading to the brain ; where, 

 as Galen taught, "the spirit enthroned in a pure 

 luciform vehicle " receives the signals. 



When closed circuits are used, the transmis- 

 sion is by means of currents, which will be here- 



