252 ELEMENTS OF ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM. 



across every one of the distorted chains of geared ether cells, 

 slipping will begin at every point on the wire, each distorted chain 

 of cells will begin to be relieved from distortion, the energy of 

 each distorted chain will be transmitted x along the chain to the 

 wire where it will appear as heat, and the entire region between 

 and surrounding the metal plates A and B will be relieved 

 from the electrical stress. The explanation here given of the en- 

 tire relief of the electrical stress between two plates by the estab- 

 lishment of a conducting line (line of slip) between them, applies 

 to two adjacent oppositely charged bodies of any shape. An 

 electric spark is a line of slip (a conducting line) and the energy 

 of the electic field flows in upon the spark as it does upon a wire. 

 The slipping of the ether cells in a conductor is imagined to be 

 opposed by a fractional drag very much as if the gear teeth of the 

 ether cells in a metal were made of a viscous substance like pitch. 



142. The electric oscillator. Let A and B, Fig. 1 84, be two 

 metal balls connected to two short rods between which is an air 

 gap. Imagine charge to have been collecting on A and B 



Fig. 184. 



(positive on A, negative on B] until a spark jumps across the 

 air gap, thus establishing a conducting path from A to B and 



