plane of vibration twisted to the right or left, as the current 
goes one way or the other through the wire, and to a degree 
that depends upon the distance it travels; not only that, but if 
the ray be sent, by reflection, back through the same field, it is 
twisted as much more—a phenomenon which convinces one that 
rotation is going on in the space through which the ray travels. 
If the ether through which the ray be sent were simply warped 
or in some static stress, the ray, after reflection, would be 
brought back to its original plane, which is not the case. This 
rotation in the ether is produced by what is going on in the 
wire. The ether waves called light are interpreted to imply 
that molecules originate them by their vibrations, and that there 
are as many ether waves per second as of molecular vibrations 
per second. In like manner, the implication is the same, that 
if there be rotations in the ether they must be produced by mole- 
cular rotation, and there must be as many rotations per second 
in the ether as there are molecular rotations that produce them. 
The space about a wire carrying a current is often pictured as 
filled with whorls indicating this motion, and one must picture 
to himself, not the wire as a whole rotating, but each individual 
molecule independently. But one is aware that the molecules of 
a conductor are practically in contact with each other, and that 
if one for any reason rotates, the next one to it would, from 
frictional action, cause the one it touched to rotate in the oppo- 
site direction, whereas the evidence goes to show that all 
rotation is in the same direction. 
How can this be explained mechanically? Recall the kind of 
action that constitutes heat, that it is not translatory action in 
any degree, but vibratory, in the sense of a change of form of an 
elastic body, and this, too, of the atoms that make up the mole- 
cules of whatever sort. Each atom is so far independent of 
every other atom in the molecule that it can vibrate in this way, 
else it could not be heated. The greater the amplitude of 
vibration, the more free space to move in, and continuous con- 
tact of atoms is incompatible with the mechanics of heat. There 
must, therefore, be impact and freedom alternating with each 
other in all degrees in a heated body. If, in any way, the atoms 
themselves weve made to rotate, their heat impacts not only 
would restrain the rotations, but the energy also of the rotation 
motion would increase the vibrations; that is, the heat would 
be correspondingly increased, which is what happens always 
when an electric current is in a conductor. It appears that the 
colder a body is the less electric resistance it has, and the indi- 
cations are that at absolute zero there is no resistance ; that is, 
impacts do not retard rotation, but it is also apparent that any 
current sent through a conductor at that temperature would at 
once heat it. This is the same as saying that an electric current 
could not be sent through a conductor at absolute zero. 
MATERIAL CONDITIONS OF ELECTRICAL MANIFESTATIONS. 
So far, mechanical conceptions are in accordance with elec- 
trical phenomena, but there are several others yet to be noted. 
I have spoken of electrical phenomena as molecular or atomic 
phenomena, and there is one more in that category which is 
well enough known, and which is so important and suggestive, 
that I wonder its significance has not been seen by those who have 
sought to interpret electrical phenomena. I refer to the fact 
that electricity cannot be transmitted through a vacuum. An 
electric arc begins to spread out as the density of the air de- 
creases, and presently it is extinguished, An induction spark 
that will jump two or three feet in air cannot be made to bridge 
the tenth ofan inch in an ordinary vacuum. A vacuum isa per- 
fect non-conductor of electricity, Is there more than one 
possible interpretation to this, namely, that electricity is funda- 
mentally a molecular and atomic phenomenon, and in the 
absence of molecules cannot exist? One may say: ‘‘ Electrical 
action isnot hindered by a vacuum,” which is true, but has 
quite another interpretation than the implication that electricity 
isan ether phenomenon. The heat of the sun in some way gets 
to the earth, but what takes place in the ether is not heat con- 
duction. There is no heat in space, and no one is at liberty 
to say, or to think, that there can be heat in the absence of 
matter. 
When heat has been transformed into ether waves it is no 
longer heat, call it by what name one will. Formerly such 
waves were called heat waves ; no one, properly informed, does 
that now. In like manner, if electrical motions or conditions 
in matter be transferred, no matter how, it is no longer proper to 
speak of such transformed motions or conditions as electricity. 
Thus, if electrical energy be transformed into heat, no one thinks 
NO. I412, VOL. 55] 
NAT ORE 
| different-conditions of the same thing. 
[| NoveMBER 19, 1896 
of speaking of the latter as electrical. If the electrical energy be 
transformed into mechanical of any sort, no one thinks of calling 
the latter electrical because of its antecedent. If electrical 
motions be transformed into ether actions of any kind, why 
should we continue to speak of the transformed motions or 
energy as being electrical? Electricity may be the antecedent, 
in the same sense as mechanical motion of a bullet may be the 
antecedent of the heat developed when the latter strikes the 
target; and if it be granted that a vacuum is a perfect non- 
conductor of electricity, then it is manifestly improper to speak 
of any phenomenon in the ether as an electrical phenomenon. 
It is from the failure to make this distinction that most of the 
trouble has come in thinking on this subject. Some have given 
all their attention to what goes on in matter, and have called 
that electricity ; others have given their attention to what goes on 
in the ether, and have called that electricity, and some have 
considered both as being the same thing, and have been 
confounded. 
RELATION BETWEEN AN ELECTRIFIED Bopy AND THE 
ETHER. 
Let us consider what is the relation between an electrified 
body and the ether about it. : 
When a body is electrified, the latter at the same time creates 
an ether stress about it, which is called an electric field. The 
ether stress may be considered as a warp in the distribution of 
the energy about the body, by the new positions given to the 
molecules by the process of electrification. I have already said 
that the evidence from other sources is that atoms, rather than 
molecules, in larger masses, are what affect the ether. One 
needs to inquire for what knowledge we have as to the consti- 
tution of matter or of atoms. There is only one hypothesis to- 
day that has any degree of probability ; that is the vortex-ring 
theory, which describes an atom as being a vortex ring of ether, 
in the ether. It possesses a definite amount of energy in virtue 
of the motion which constitutes it, and this motion differentiates 
it from the surrounding ether, giving it dimensions, elasticity, 
momentum, and the possibility of translatory, rotary, vibratory 
motions and combinations of them. Without going further into 
this, it is sufficient, for a mechanical conception, that one should 
have so much in mind, as it will vastly help in forming 
mechanical conceptions of reactions between atoms and the ether. 
An exchange of energy between such an atom and the ether is 
not an exchange between different kinds of things, but between 
Next, it should be re- 
membered that all the elements are magnetic in some degree. 
This means that they are themselves magnets, and every magnet 
has a magnetic field unlimited in extent, which can almost be re- 
garded as a part of itself. Ifa magnet of any size be moved, 
its field is moved with it, and if in any way the magnetism be 
increased or diminished, the field changes correspondingly. 
Assume a straight bar electro-magnet in circuit, so that a cur- 
rent can be made intermittent, say, once a second. When the 
circuit is closed and the magnet is made, the field at once is 
formed and travels outwards at the rate of 186,000 miles per 
second. When the current stops, the field adjacent is destroyed. 
Another closure develops the field again, which, like the ether, 
travels outwards ; and so there may be formed a series of waves 
in the ether, each 186,000 miles long, with an electro-magnetic 
antecedent. Ifthe circuit were closed ten times a second, the 
waves would be 18,600 miles long ; if 186,000 times a second, 
they would be but one mile long. If 400 million of millions _ 
times a second, they would be but the forty-thousandth of 
an inch long, and would then affect the eye, and we should 
call them light waves, but the latter would not differ from the 
first wave in any particular except inlength. As it is proved that 
such electro-magnetic waves have all the characteristics of light, 
it follows that they must originate with electro-magnetic action, 
that is, in the changing magnetism of a magnetic body. This 
makes it needful to assume that the atoms which originate waves 
are magnets, as they are experimentally found to be. But how 
can a magnet, not subject to a varying current, change its mag- 
netic field? The strength or density of a magnetic field depends 
upon the form of the magnet. When the poles are near to- 
gether, the field is densest ; when the magnet is bent back to a 
straight bar, the field is rarest or weakest, and a change in the 
form of the magnet from a U-form to a straight bar would result 
in a change of the magnetic field within its greatest limits. A 
few turns of wire wound about the poles of an ordinary U-mag- 
net, and connected to an ordinary magnetic telephone, will 
