<ED 



THE 

 LONDON, EDINBURGH, and DUBLIN 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



[SIXTH SERIES.] 



JANUARY 1903. 



I. On Oscillator?/ Discharges. 

 By A. Battelli and L. Magri 



Part I 



General Description of Method. 



1. HP HO UGH experiments have been made for some time 

 JL in order to test Thomson's f theory of condenser 

 discharges, no systematic and simultaneous study has, so far, 

 been effected of the influences capable of modifying in the 

 case of those discharges the period of oscillation, as the expe- 

 rimental disposition hitherto employed failed to prove adequate 

 for researches extending over any considerable ranges, and 

 did not allow of taking account of — if not all — even the 

 principal elements. 



Nor has the importance of the spark ever been carefully 

 considered; notwithstanding Cardani's and Heydweiller's re- 

 searches, no exact value of its resistance has been obtained, 

 .according to the most considerable mutability of the spark 

 from one case to another, and the variability of its resistance, 

 from the moment of its beginning to the moment of its dis- 

 appearing. Moreover, in the case of oscillating discharges 

 the current is not uniformly distributed over the whole section 

 of the conductor. 



This complication — modifying, as was first shown by 

 Maxwell, and afterwards more fully by Lord Rayleigh, 



* Communicated by the Authors. 

 t Phil. Mag-. [4] v. p. .398 (1863). 



Phil. Mag. S. 6. Vol. 5. No. 2r>. Jan. 1903. B 



