1904 - 5 .] Mr J. Fraser on Electricity based on Bubble Atom. 681 
for, being perfect spheres, they could only touch at one point, and 
a certain area round the point of contact would be void of ether 
which would be all squeezed out by the act of bringing the atoms 
together. In this way the pressure, which was formerly supported 
by the particles in the screened space, would be now transferred to 
the particles at the point of contact of the bubbles, which, not 
being able to resist the increased pressure brought to bear on them, 
would be squeezed inwards, and the atoms flattened at these points ; 
in this way they would adhere together by what would amount to 
veritable suction, and form molecules. These molecules would 
vibrate in and out concertina-fashion ; and at each vibration 
outwards sending a pulse, or wave, of ether out into space, thus 
accounting for radiation of heat. 
The larger the surface area of these bubbles the greater the hold 
would they have of one another, and chemical afflnity is accounted 
for by the fact that small atoms would find a better hold on large 
ones than on those of their own size, and so would, whenever they 
got the opportunity, cling to them in preference.* I must refer 
the reader to the paper itself for the way in which gravity is 
accounted for, as to give any intelligible account of it here would 
be too long, and it has no particular bearing on the subject of the 
present paper. 
2. I must admit that my very partial attempt to account for, or 
rather guess at, the nature of conduction was a failure in that 
paper, but I hope to be more successful in my present one. I 
ought to have dwelt a little longer in the paper referred to on the 
beautiful, almost miraculous, way in which the bubble atom makes 
its way through the ether — how the particles crowd together at 
the points where the pressure is greatest, and where it is least 
there will a fewer number of them be found ; the very act of 
pressure bringing them together, and the want of it causing them 
to separate farther apart. It seems as if they were furnished with 
a species of volition, for as soon as any part of their dominion is 
threatened with violence there they rush at once to protect it. I 
cannot help thinking of it and wondering, and yet it is all so 
mechanical. 
* Readers will gather from the present paper that I have altered my mind 
on this subject. 
