Researches in the Theory and Calculus of Operations. 271 



to an isolated conductor C or elsewhere. In speaking of the 

 atomic forces a and a', it must be remembered that it is 

 not the material atoms themselves that travel or are decom- 

 posed and recomposed, but the mutually opposing forces 

 whose equilibrium constitutes the atoms. 



14. The analogy of this exposition with the interpreta- 

 tion of the wave theory ought to be patent. Since pushing 

 before is equivalent to pulling behind, it seems that each of 

 the two kinds of electric force has two faces, a front and 

 aft; the front is repulsive, the aft attractive; and from the 

 mauner of their genesis, the negative half is one or an odd 

 number of phases behind the positive half of the full wave. 

 Electricity is, as it were, a single force split in two ( a split 

 force). 



Figure 15 is intended to exhibit a fuller view of the opera- 

 tion. B is the cushion (electriser) or active member, A the 

 electric (electron) or reactive member of the machine. The 

 shaded and unshaded portions of the atomic circles repre- 

 sent respectively the liberated and the destroyed semiatomic 

 forces. It is assumed that the substantial force of B has 

 greater rapidity of emanation than the force of A, to an 

 amount that determines the extent of the atomical radii 

 when the encounter takes place. All the time it is the equi- 

 librated atomic forces, and not the atoms themselves, that 

 move in the transfer or enter into new combinations : atomic 

 vibration appertains to calorific propagation, atomic com- 

 position to chemical propagation. 



In A x B x (fig. 15), the line of atoms are in equilibrium. 

 During the instant of time occupied in the first turn of the 

 wheel or movement of the electriser, the equilibrium is 

 disturbed by the predominating action of B, the atomic 

 forces advancing one phase upon A and taking the position 

 shown in A 2 B 2 , leaving a semiatom vacant at o and an 

 equal semiatom projecting at a. If both members of the 

 machine are insulated, reaction of the atoms during the 



