2 Prof. L. T. More on Electrostriction. 



disturbances were located, and proved to be due })rincipally to 

 heating of the glass and to a slight bending of the tube, pro- 

 duced by a field of force not absolutely uniform in all 

 directions. 



A s^thesie discrepancies threw doubt on my results, the work 

 of others was compared, and so many inconsistencies became 

 evident that I abandoned my original plan and turned my 

 attention to the subject of electrostriction itself. 



From experiments made by Quincke"^ it could be inferred 

 that rigidity and accuracy of alignment were very essential, 

 and my apparatus had, as I thought, been constructed to 

 obA'iate errors due to the neglect of these conditions. But 

 repeated trials convinced me that the utmost care was 

 necessary to eliminate their influence. I finally did get such 

 uniform tubes in so accurate and rigid adjustment as to 

 reduce them to a minimum. But with the elimination of 

 these extraneous phenomena the entire elongation disappeared 

 also. So I concluded that either the effect did not exist or 

 was much smaller than was supposed. 



Some time afterwards Dr. Sacerdote called my attention to 

 his own memoir on the theory and to the experimental work 

 of Cantone. He argued that the absence of the effect in my 

 case resulted from employing an apparatus not sufficiently 

 sensitive, His criticisms were afterwards published f. In 

 a reply % 1 attempted to show that Dr. Sacerdote had mis- 

 understood certain important statements of mine, and that my 

 apparatus did have a sensibility great enough to have indi- 

 cated the effect, assuming the values given by Cantone. The 

 results of others, it was stated, were not quantitatively 

 reliable. 



After some correspondence, Dr. Sacerdote has asked me to 

 repeat my work, using a more sensitive apparatus. The delay 

 in doing so has been somewhat great ; but it has the advantage 

 of allowing time for the discussion of the subject which has 

 occurred. 



It is hardly necessary to give an account of the experi- 

 mental results on this subject, as they have already been 

 described and discussed by myself and others, excepting the 

 work of the more recent investigators. 



Prof. Cantone §, alone and in collaboration with Sozzani ||, 



* Quincke, Wied. Ann. x. pp. 161, 374, 513 ; xix. pp. 545, 705 ; 

 xxviii. p. 529 ; xxxii. p. 530. 



t Sacerdote, Phil. Mag. vol. i. p. 357 (1901). 



X PMl. Mag. vol. ii. p. 527 (1901). 



§ Cantone, Mend, della R. Ace. dei Lincei, t. iv. pp. 344, 471 (1888). 



jl Cantone and Sozzani, Heyid. della Ii. 1st. Lomhardo, t. xxxiii. (1900). 



