116 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



so placed as to produce a cone of very intense light. 

 Two minutes elapsed before anything was visible; but at 

 the end of this time a faint bluish cloud appeared to hang 

 itself on the most concentrated portion of the beam. 



Soon afterward a second cloud was formed five inches 

 further down the experimental tube. Both clouds were 

 united by a slender cord of the same bluish tint as them- 

 selves. 



As the action of the light continued, the first cloud 

 gradually Resolved itself into a series of parallel disks of 

 exquisite delicacy, which rotated round an axis perpen- 

 dicular to their surfaces, and finally blended to a screw 

 surface with an inclined generatrix. This gradually 

 changed into a filmy funnel, from the narrow end of 

 which the "cord" extended to the cloud in advance. 

 The latter also underwent slow but incessant modification. 

 It first resolved itself into a series of strata resembling 

 those of the electric discharge. After a little time, and 

 through changes which it was difficult to follow, both 

 clouds presented the appearance of a series of concentric 

 funnels set one within the other, the interior ones being 

 seen through the outer ones. Those of the distant cloud 

 resembled claret-glasses in shape. As many as six fun- 

 nels were thus concentrically set together, the two series 

 being united by the delicate cord of cloud already re- 

 ferred to. Other cords and slender tubes were afterward 

 formed, which coiled themselves in delicate spirals around 

 the funnels. 



Rendering the light along the connecting-cord more 

 intense, it diminished in thickness and became whiter; 

 this was a consequence of the enlargement of its particles. 

 The cord finally disappeared, while the funnels melted 



