384 Trouron—The Results of an Electrical Experiment, &c. 
From this point of view, instead of a translatory impulse as suggested by 
FitzGerald, it is a purely turning effect which should be looked for, and the 
author proposes to test the matter by suspending a light condenser of very 
high insulation, with its plates standing vertically. As the effect increases with 
the square of the voltage, it is advantageous to have this quantity as large as 
possible. This may be the more readily done in the present case, as the same 
complications do not present themselves from sparking, etc., as arose where inter- 
mittent charging was necessary in the experiments described in the body of this 
paper. By having the suspended apparatus light, the moment of torsion of the 
wire may be greatly reduced, which is of the highest importance. 
Should this turning moment be proved to operate, instead of being masked by 
some compensating effect, it would open up a road leading to illimitable possibi- 
lities, for it would at once remove from the category of utter hopelessness the 
idea of mankind ever being able to utilize the vast store of energy in the 
Earth’s motion through space. 
It is not difficult in theory to conceive a machine for doing this, in fact for 
harnessing the solar system, so to speak. Jor instance, a number of air con- 
densers could be arranged round a cylinder so as to be capable of rotating as a 
whole about its axis, and spaced with their plates tangentially to their circular 
motion, the axis of rotation being always kept at right angles to the motion 
through the ether. Now, suppose one of these condensers to be charged with 
electricity, as it moves up from the ‘ edgewise” position to the “ flatwise ” 
position, there is a couple exerted, turning the whole apparatus round the common 
axis. On reaching the latter position, the charges on the plates of the condenser 
are to be conveyed to another of the condensers, which, in the course of its passage 
round, has just reached the ‘‘ edgewise” position vacated by the first one in ques- 
tion. ‘This must be effected without sparking, or there would be an undue loss of 
energy. This might be done by a method very similar to Maxwell’s well-known 
‘‘yegenerator” arrangement. As each condenser comes to the ‘ flatwise”’ position, 
it enters an inductor arrangement, one for each plate of the condenser, and when 
fully inside each plate touches a contact spring. Simultaneously a pair of con- 
denser plates at the ‘‘ edgewise” position is emerging from a pair of inductors, 
one for each plate, but still kept in metallic contact with the inductors by springs. 
The inductors in each position are in metallic connexion with the corresponding 
inductors at right angles. In this way the charge is removed from one set of 
plates and given to the other. ‘The same could be also used in duplicate on the 
diametrically opposite position, thus giving double the turning force. 
I take this opportunity of thanking Professor J. Larmor, Sec. R.S., for his 
advice and helpful discussions of the subject-matter of this paper. 
