Nipher—On the Nature of the Electric Discharge. 19 
- the two spheres must be forced to collapse to zero radius 
at a uniform rate of motion. 
yee 
kt 
dQ=Vdr=idt 
V 50 6.387108 
| or t= a 800 ~8x10° = 0.0354. 
Since V we have 
The time during which the operation of the lamp could 
be maintained by this amount of electricity is therefore 
0.035 second. We must therefore think of this operation 
as being continuously repeated 28 times a second in order 
to maintain a 50-watt lamp in normal operation. The 
velocity with which the radii must shorten from 6.37108 
em. (4000 miles) to zero during each stroke of the piston 
of this electrical pumping service, is 1.8X10'° cm. per 
second, or about 113,000 miles per second. This is more 
than half the velocity of light. 
It is said by physicians who use electricity in the treat- 
ment of disease that when a patient is placed on an insu- 
lating stand, a sponge treatment with the positive ter- 
minal of an influence machine, gives very different re- 
sults from those produced by the negative terminal. If 
the conclusions of this paper are correct, the reason for 
this difference is somewhat like that which explains the 
difference between the action of cold and hot water. In 
the one case Franklin’s ‘‘fluid’’ is being drawn out of the 
patient, and in the other case it is being forced in under 
pressure. 
The phenomena discussed in this paper show that 
everywhere in and around an electric system composed of 
the machine and its conductors, the negative particles are 
the direct active agents. If we consider a branching spark 
discharge we may perhaps assume that the breaking down 
of the air begins at the positive terminal. A Geissler-tube 
condition progresses outward from that terminal. Tribu- 
tary discharges branch off from the main discharge-chan- 
