Energy and Ether. 1029 



" With a plate of iron the strokes transmitted are much stronger and 

 have a particular sound which diminishes rapidly in proportion as you 

 raise the plate," and enfeeble the influence of the magnet on the iron; 

 when touching the case edgeways it becomes like glass or wood, or other 

 non-magnetic substance. It is inferred then that in the receiver ' the 

 iron diaphragm is subjected to a double influence, that of the magnet and 

 the case in which it is fixed." 



Du Moncel attributes the effects of the telephone to molecular vibra- 

 tions of the magnet, which are strengthened by the iron diaphragm and 

 rendered more sensible to the ear. " By raising the mouth-piece and 

 the iron diaphragm of the telephone, and holding it firmly in the one 

 hand, and with the other drawing a violin bow lightly upon the edge, 

 you obtain a sharp sound that can be heard clearly in the receiving tele- 

 phone. A small ruler placed crosswise before the instrument and pass- 

 ing beyond it some centimeters, produces a sound when struck at the 

 end with the bow, so that when it is shortened the sounds are elevated, 

 and give those of an ascending gamut, which immediately come to the 

 ear at the receiver." The grave notes which shake the instrument, and 

 the hand, are not heard in the receiver, while the sharp ones are repro- 

 duced there easily, and ' ' the reason perhaps is because the vibrations 

 from the sharp sounds approach to the character of molecular vibra- 

 tion. " Strokes made on the magnet, the coil, or the case, were heard 

 in the receiver. ' ' The effects from the telephone are too usually attri- 

 buted to the sensible vibrations of the iron plate moving backward and 

 forward from the magnet, representing the well-known and habitually 

 accepted action; but the molecular vibrations which are performed, so 

 to speak, atom by atom in the immovable plate, play a more important 

 part, and without them articulate speech would be impossible. " 



Now, in explaining the foregoing, I think everj'one will admit that the 

 electric current which runs through the wire from transmitter to receiver, 

 consists of a movement of the ether contained in the wire and not the par- 

 ticles of the wire itself. No sort of movement communicated from par- 

 ticle to particle of the iron wire could be imagined to be ^competent to 

 get around the world in a few seconds. This movement of the current 

 ether in the wire then communicates motion to the ether in the receiving 

 diaphragm, to the case of the instrument and to the air, and finally to 

 the ear. In the auditory nerve and ear we recognize the motion as cer- 

 tainly molecular and ethereal. Having thus ethereal motion in the 

 wire of the instrument, and in the ear, and having, (as all agree) an 

 unbroken succession of ether from the instrument to the ear, there is cer- 

 tainly nothing violent in the chiim that this ether itself is the real ve- 

 hicle of the movement from l)(\irinnin<r to end; the motion "from atom 

 to atom " in the receiving plates mentioned above being in reality a mo- 



