Page:A history of the theories of aether and electricity. Whittacker E.T. (1910).pdf/298

 action of the particles and vortices. This action is determined, as Maxwell showed, by the relation

which connects E, the force exerted on a unit quantity of particles at any place in consequence of the tangential action of the vortices, with Ḣ, the rate of change of velocity of the neighbouring vortices. It will be observed that this equation is not kinematical but dynamical. On comparing it with the electromagnetic equations

it is seen that E must be interpreted electromagnetically as the induced electromotive force. Thus the motion of the particles constitutes an electric current, the tangential force with which they are pressed by the matter of the vortex-cells constitutes electromotive force, and the pressure of the particles on each other may be taken to correspond to the tension or potential of the electricity.

The mechanism must next be extended so as to take account of the phenomena of electrostatics. For this purpose Maxwell assumed that the particles, when they are displaced from their equilibrium position in any direction, exert a tangential action on the elastic substance of the eclls; and that this gives rise to a distortion of the cells, which in turn calls into play a force arising from their elasticity, equal and opposite to the force which urges the particles away from the equilibrium position. When the exciting force is removed, the cells recover their form, and the electricity returns to its former position. The state of the medium, in which the electric particles are displaced in a definite direction, is assumed to represent an electrostatic field. Such a displacement does not itself con- stitute a current, because when it has attained a certain value it remains constant; but the variations of displacement are to be regarded as currents, in the positive or negative direction according as the displacement is increasing or diminishing.