On the Production of a High-voltage Continuous Current. 319 



" Note on a Means of producing a High-voltage Continuous or 

 'Pertinacious' Current." By Sir OLIVER J. LODGE, F.RS. 

 Keceived November 24, Eead December 8, 1894. 



The methods hitherto employed for propelling a current through 

 very high resistance have involved the use either of a very large static 

 inductive machine, such as that of Wimshurst and others, or a battery 

 of a very large number of cells, as employed by De la Rue, Trowbridge, 

 etc. The author finds that by the use of high-tension mercury-rectifiers 

 the same result can be attained with ordinary sources of supply, e.g., 

 by transforming and utilising the current from any steady or alternating 

 main. In particular the use of rectifiers enables a high-tension inter- 

 mittent or jerky current, such as that from a Ruhmkorff coil, to be 

 trapped, and the supply stored in a couple of reservoirs, all the positive 

 pulses in one, all the negative in another, whence they can be con- 

 tinuously discharged through any high resistance. 



The author proposes to exhibit the effect at a forthcoming soire'e. 

 The arrangement was originally designed for the purpose of discharging 

 large quantities of electricity into the air for the purpose of coagulating 

 mist and fog. 



