THOUGHTS ON NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 67 



and gallery after gallery of simple, or intricate, and 

 exquisite beauty. My definitions, therefore, are more 

 for practical use, than absolutely correct. 



The ether waves strike upon the receiver, and the 

 material motion is again transformed into electricity, 

 or material motion and stress within an insulating 

 envelope. If this is true it gives us a beautiful 

 illustration of the transforming of electricity into 

 mere material motion, and of that motion again into 

 electricity. It also suggests what looks like a matter 

 of great practical importance. If it is correct, it 

 appears possible that electrical engineers will be able 

 in the future to do without many millions of miles 

 of that very expensive material copper wire, and that 

 with the insertion of an antenna at one end and a 

 receiver at the other of their insulated tube (now 

 called cable) they may be able to force along the 

 tube, and to store their electricity in the accumula- 

 tors. The development of electric power on these 

 lines will greatly cheapen it as a motive force, so 

 much so that it appears bound to become the great 

 motive force of the future. Why is it that the force 

 that strikes the receiver is so feeble in comparison to 

 the total force that leaves the antenna ? It is evident 

 that the reason is that the power is mainly dissipated 

 into space in the form of material motion. If the 

 whole of that power could be retained in a small 

 cubical space as in an accumulator, the problem of 

 the best electrical accumulator would be solved. We 

 should not need to attempt the disassociation of the 

 atom as suggested by Le Bon, we should tap the 

 primitive ether force and store it in accumulators to 



