262 ADVANCED ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM. 



distorted as shown (in part), but, inasmuch as it is a closed chain, 

 its distortion is fixed as explained in connection with Fig. 202. 

 When a spark is formed across the gap, however, a line of slip is 

 established which cuts across the distorted chain, and the dis- 

 tortion disappears as explained in connection with Figs. 201, 202 

 and 203. What is said of the single chain of ether cells is true 

 of every chain which surrounds A or B in Fig. 204. 



If the slip which relieves the distortion of the chain of ether 

 cells takes place with great friction (great electrical resistance 

 of the conducting path formed by the spark), the cells near the 

 spark begin turning slowly and the entire energy of the distorted 

 chain is geared into the spark and converted at once into heat. 

 If the slip which relieves the distortion of the chain of ether cells 

 is almost frictionless (low electrical resistance of the conducting 

 path formed by the spark), then the energy of the distorted 

 chain is used mainly in overcoming the inertia of the cells in the 

 neighborhood of the spark as they are set rotating, and after a 

 very short interval of time the whole of the electrical energy 

 will have been converted into kinetic energy of the rotating cells 

 (magnetic energy) . During this conversion the energy, streaming 

 along the dotted lines in Fig. 204, largely disappears from the 

 regions ee and ee and is distributed mainly in the region mm. 

 When the chains of ether cells have been relieved from distortion, 

 the rotatory motion of the ether cells in the region mm will 

 have reached a maximum, and the cells will continue to rotate 

 because of their momenta, thus producing reversed distortion 

 of each chain of ether cells. During the time that this reversed 

 distortion is being produced the energy streams back from the 

 region mm to the regions ee and ee, being converted again 

 into potential energy of ether distortion, and the balls A and 

 B become charged in a reversed sense. This reversed distortion 

 of the chains of ether cells is then relieved by a reversed slip 

 (a reversed current in the rods and along the spark), and the 

 above described action is repeated over and over again until the 

 original energy of the electric field has been dissipated. 



