Page:A history of the theories of aether and electricity. Whittacker E.T. (1910).pdf/355

 equal and opposite to that of the original filament. As the bodies are moved apart, the hollow vortex may, through failure of stability, dissociate into a number of smaller ones; and if the resulting number be very large, they will ultimately take up a position of stable equilibrium. The two sets of filaments—the original filaments and their hollow companions—will be intermingled, and each will distribute itself according to the same law as the lines of force between the two bodies which are equally and oppositely electrified.

Since the pressure inside a hollow vortex is zero, the portion of the surface on which it abuts experiences a diminution of pressure, the two bodies are therefore attracted. Moreover, as the two bodies separate further, the distribution of the filaments being the same as that of lines of electric force, the diminution of pressure for each line is the same at all distances, and therefore the force between the two bodies follows the same law as the force between two bodies equally and oppositely electrified. It may be shown that the effect of the original filaments is similar, the diminution of pressure being half as large again as for the hollow vortices.

If another surface were brought into the presence of the others, those of the filaments which encounter it would break off and rearrange themselves so that each part of a broken filament terminates on the new body. This analogy thus gives a complete account of electrostatic actions both quantitatively and qualitatively: the electric charge on a body corresponds to the number of ends of filaments abutting on it, the sign being determined by the direction of rotation of the filament as viewed from the body.

A magnetic field may be supposed to be produced by the motion of the vortex filaments through the stationary aether, the magnetic force being at right angles to the filament and to its direction of motion. Electrostatic and magnetic fields thus correspond to states of motion in the medium, in which, however, there is no bodily flow; for the two kinds of filament produce circulation in opposite directions.