1904 - 5 .] Mr J. Fraser on Electricity based on Bubble Atom. 687 
the pressure, a rebound and recovery of form takes place, the atoms 
at the same time sending out into space a volley of small shot, so 
to speak, instead of the scattered firing which would otherwise 
take place if they did not come into contact. The separate in- 
dependent particle movements of the area in contact during the 
time of contact are concentrated into one simultaneous movement 
of them all, and this is a w r ave of heat. 
8. I do not know of anything which better illustrates the 
difference between heat-waves and electricity than to compare 
heat-waves to volleys, and electricity to scattered firing. The 
particles of the atoms, when the atoms are not in contact, are each 
firing away their own small shot, independently of their neigh- 
bours, but w r hen the atoms are in the act of separation, after being 
in contact, the result of the cessation of this scattered firing during 
the time of contact is one simultaneous volley from all the 
particles which had been in contact, and which had been prevented 
from firing off their small shot during this time. This volley, 
then, constitutes a wave of heat, and what I mean to assert is 
that the greater the quantity of electricity possessed by any kind, 
or species, of atom the greater will be the quantity of it ultimately 
transformed into heat (see par. 9) by that species, both by their 
collisions and as a result of the vibrations of their molecules. If this 
be correct, then the quantity of electricity radiated by all kinds of 
atoms in the neutral state is the same, but a very different quantity 
of heat would be radiated by them ; and as waves of heat do not 
alter the average pressure of the ether (each condensation being 
followed by an equal dilatation), the result would be a state of 
equilibrium. 
9. I said above that “the greater the quantity of electricity 
possessed by any kind of atom the greater will be the quantity 
of it ultimately transformed into heat.” I say ultimately , because 
it does not follow that because one species of atom has a greater 
quantity of electricity than another that therefore this excess is 
immediately transformed into heat. For the radiation of heat by 
any kind of atom or molecule will depend — everything else being 
the same — upon the elasticity of the atoms. Hence the highly 
elastic kind will take a comparatively long time in radiating their 
heat away, not only because they possess a greater share of 
