1904 - 5 .] Mr J. Fraser on Electricity based on Bubble Atom. 705 
whose particles move with different velocities .* Well, then, when 
anything tends to increase the motion of bodies moving with 
different velocities, the slowest are the first to accept the new 
motion. This is on the principle that any explosive, or, indeed, 
other force, will expend itself in the direction of least resistance. 
In an electrolyte the positive element is always the one whose 
particles possess the least speed, and therefore it is the first to 
accept the “ current.” Such being the case, the bond uniting the 
positive to the negative atom, when the “current” is turned on, 
becomes dissolved ; in other words, the collapse at the junction of 
the atoms becomes filled up, or rounded out, by the increase of 
speed in the particles of the positive element. As the collapse of 
the positive becomes filled up it gradually ceases to press upon, 
and by the reaction of its increased centrifugal force begins to 
draw away from the negative, whose particles consequently begin 
to round out, owing to the cessation of pressure upon them ; and 
when they become entirely separated they would both have the 
form of perfect spheres. 
It will, no doubt, be noted that the collapse of the positive atom 
is filled up by the “ current,” but that that of the negative is made 
good by the motion previously possessed by the particles of the 
negative atom. In fact, the negative atom must collapse as a whole 
in order to make good the deformation at the bond, while the size 
of the positive is increased by this quantity. The one is therefore 
made more negative, while the other is made more positive. 
To go a little more into detail, let us suppose the electrolyte to 
be water, then, as soon as the current is turned on, the hydrogen 
of the layer of molecules nearest the anode begins to accept the 
new motion ; some of this is passed on to that of the next layer, 
and so on, till all the bonds of the electrolyte are about to be 
dissolved ; none, or very little, of the current passing till this 
happens, because, as it seems to me, there is less resistance in 
* There seems to be some difficulty in accepting this statement. There is 
a liability to come to the conclusion that because the ions are in contact the 
speeds of their particles must be equalised. But this could never happen, 
for they cannot have the same speed with different radii or their “ centrifugal 
force ” would differ, nor can they have the same radii with different masses 
or their speeds must differ. The particles of the different ions never come 
into direct collision, because if they did the ions would break up, and it is 
chiefly by their centrifugal tendencies that momentum is exchanged. 
PROC. ROY. SOC. EDIN. — YOL. XXV. 45 
