iqio.] 



Overhead Electrical Discharges. 



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with which, owing to the high tension reached, it was possible 

 to have the discharge wires raised to a convenient height 

 above the ground. 



It is owing to the enterprise and energy of Mr. J. E. 

 Newman that trials of the overhead discharge method upon 

 a large scale have been carried out with these new facilities 

 which, through the kind co-operation of Sir Oliver Lodge, 

 F.R.S., and his son, Mr. Lionel Lodge, he has been able to 

 test very fully. 



These trials have been made chiefly upon the land of Mr. 

 Raymond Bomford at Salford Priors, near Evesham. Mr. 

 Bomford's co-operation has been of the greatest value to 

 Mr. Newman. During the last year or two, also, a smaller 

 but interesting trial has been made at Bitton, near Bristol, 

 at some nurseries which are the property of Mr. George 

 Newman. I have been privileged to be in close touch with 

 these experiments throughout, and some description of their 

 method and results may be of interest, particularly as they 

 are now being taken up by other countries besides our own, 

 and within a few years considerable data as to the advan- 

 tages or otherwise of the method should be to hand. I 

 propose to discuss first of all the general principles involved 

 in installing an apparatus for producing electrical discharges 

 upon crops, and then to discuss the more direct application 

 of the method, first on open agricultural land and secondly 

 upon greenhouse crops. 



General Principles. — It will be impossible to speak 

 authoritatively upon this subject until infinitely more is 

 known as to the physiological effect produced by the elec- 

 trical discharge upon the plant. 



Unfortunately my own work has been so interrupted by 

 quite unavoidable causes that I do not feel myself in a 

 position to discuss my experimental results, and the results 

 of other investigations so far as published are very contra- 

 dictory, and in any case have usually but little application 

 to this particular method of electrification. 



The general assumption underlying the work is evidently 

 that the passage of a small electric current through the plant 

 is beneficial to it, and tends to increase the yield and often 

 to lessen the time in which that yield is usually obtainable. 



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