Atom and the Charge of Electricity carried by it. 513 



of negative vorticity whose strength is equal and opposite to 

 the positive vorticity of the core. To fix our ideas, let us 

 suppose that the rotation in the core is related to the direction 

 of the axis of the tube (the line running from the origin to 

 the end of the tube) like rotation and translation in a right- 

 handed screw. 



Now let us consider the atoms on which these tubes end. 

 Let us suppose that these atoms have a structure possessing 

 similar properties to those which the atoms would possess if 

 they contained a number of gyrostats all spinning in one way 

 round the outwardly drawn normals to their surface. Then 

 one of these atoms will be differently affected by a Faraday 

 tube, and will possess different amounts of energy according 

 as the tube begins or ends on its surface. For if, when the 

 tube starts from the atom, the rotation in the core of the tube 

 is in the same direction as the rotation of the gyrostats, then 

 when a tube ends on the atom the rotation in the tube will be 

 in the opposite direction to that of the gyrostats. Thus in the 

 first case the tube will tend to twist a gyrostat in the same 

 direction as that in which it is already spinning, while in the 

 second case it will tend to twist it in the opposite direction. 

 Now if we try to rotate a gyroscopic system, its behaviour 

 when we try to make it rotate in the direction in which the 

 gyroscopes are spinning is quite different from its behaviour 

 when we try to spin it in the opposite direction. 



Thus let fig. 1 represent a balanced gyrostat which can 



Fi-. 1. 



rotate as a whole about the vertical axis A B ; the heavy 

 fly-wheel C D is supported so that its axis can move freely in 

 a vertical plane. Let this fly-wheel be in rapid rotation with 

 its axis vertical ; the framework of the gyrostat will not tend 

 to rotate. Now r if we set the framework rotating about the 



