NEW CONCEPTIONS IN SCIENCE 



likes. So you have a long or short series of waves 

 flying through space at the speed of light. While 

 Signor Marconi waited in Newfoundland with the 

 telephone at his ear, this is what his operator in 

 Cornwall was doing. In Newfoundland was an ar- 

 rangement of a little different sort. 



Here were batteries and a circuit, just the same. 

 But instead of the transformer and the polished 

 brass balls, a little glass tube makes a part of the 

 circuit. Into this run the two ends of the wires 

 from the batteries. In the gap between the two 

 are some nickel-silver filings. Ordinarily, these 

 will not let the current from the battery pass. The 

 path is blocked. 



But if this little tube, about as big as a quill 

 toothpick, be attached at the same time to the 

 receiving wire, which runs out through the win- 

 dow and up the mast, a curious effect is observed. 

 When the electric-waves strike the high wire and 

 are absorbed, they come running down in a way to 

 make the nickel filings stand up in a hurry. The 

 little particles seem to cohere, and in such a way 

 as to let the other current from the batteries on 

 the floor flow through. Why, nobody knows. 

 Give the tube a little tap and they fall apart again. 

 It is the oddest sort of a performance, and was 

 quite unheard of until Professor Branly's discovery, 

 ten years ago. 



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