9.2 Mr. H. Wilde's Experimental Researches 



136. From a consideration of the opposite effects of resistance 

 and conduction exhibited when the tape-covered conductors were 

 arranged separately in the canal in the several ways described 

 (131, 133, 134, 135), it is evident that the transmission of the 

 current from the electromotor is preceded by an inductive action 

 upon the liquid particles in contact with the conductors, which 

 action, according as it is adverse or favourable, retards or acce- 

 lerates the discharge of the current into the earth. The increased 

 quantity of electricity discharged into the earth from the three- 

 fold conductors, above that from the same conductors when coiled 

 into separate rings, is not surprising, as we have already seen 

 that in the case of the coiled twin conductors the inductive 

 action of a number of convolutions in contact with each other 

 on every side was much more perfect (as shown by the melting 

 of thick wires at N) than when these same twin conductors were 

 extended in the canal (128, 129). 



137. To recapitulate what has already been advanced in proof 

 of the action of the electrodes being independent of any mutual 

 influence which they might be supposed to exercise on each 

 other through the intervening body of water when transmitting 

 a current of electricity into the earth : — We have seen that 

 the same effects of conduction and resistance were produced, and 

 equal amounts of current were transmitted into the earth from 

 the same electrodes, whether the distance between them was 3 

 feet or 300 feet — a result altogether incompatible with the well- 

 ascertained laws which have been determined in connexion with 

 the transmission of electric currents through liquids contained 

 in insulated vessels. 



138. That the distance between the electrodes does, under 

 certain circumstances, exercise an influence on the quantity of 

 electricity transmitted from the electromotors was evident from 

 the heating and fusing of wires at N when the conductors were 

 brought into close proximity to each other by the contrivance of 

 the twin conductors. But that this influence operates within 

 limits extremely small was also evident from the fact that, when 

 the ring-electrodes were only 3 feet apart, none of the electro- 

 motors would heat the thin wire at N. Moreover, that the mu- 

 tual influence of the electrodes upon each other when in close 

 proximity is an action entirely distinct and separable from 

 the influence which these electrodes exercise upon the earth is 

 shown by the heating of wires at N when the saturated coil of 

 twin conductors was lifted out of the canal and suspended in 

 the air (130). 



139. This distinction between the two inductions becomes 

 still more obvious from the fact that, when the twin conductors 

 were extended in the canal, the inductive influence of the con- 



