Imagine next that the to and fro movement of the electrons or charges is sufficiently rapid to bring into play the inertia quality of the medium. We then have a different state of affairs. The lines of strain in the external medium cannot contract or collapse quickly enough to keep up with the course of events, or movements of the electrons in the rods, and hence their regular contraction and absorption is changed into a process of a different kind. As the electrons and co-electrons, _i.e._, the electric charges, vibrate to and fro, the lines of electric strain connecting them are nipped in and thrown off as completely independent and closed lines of electric strain, and at each successive alternation, groups or batches of these loops of strain are detached from the rod, and, so to speak, take on an independent existence. The whole process of the formation of these self-closed lines of electric strain is best understood by examining a series of diagrams which roughly represent the various stages of the process. In Fig. 2 we have a diagram (_a_) the curved line in which delineates approximately the form of one line of electric strain round a linear oscillator, with spark gap in the centre, one half being charged positively and the other negatively. Let us then suppose that the insulation of the spark gap is destroyed, so that the opposite electric charges rush together and oscillate to and fro. The strain lines at each oscillation are then crossed or decussate, and the result, as shown in Fig. 2, _d_, is that a portion of the energy of the field is thrown off in the form of self-closed lines of strain (see Fig. 2, _e_). At each oscillation of the charges the direction of the lines of strain springing from end to end of the radiator is reversed. It is a general property of lines of strain whether electric or magnetic, that there is a tension along the line and a pressure at right angles. In other words, these lines of electric strain are like elastic threads, they tend to contract in the direction of their length and press sideways on each other when in the same direction. Hence it is not difficult to see that as each batch of self-closed lines of strain is thrown off, the direction of the strain round each loop is alternately in one direction and in the other. Hence these loops of electric strain press each other out, and each one that is formed squeezes the already formed loops further and further from the radiator. The loops, therefore, march away into space (see Fig. 2, _f_). If we imagine ourselves standing at a little distance at a point on the equatorial line and able to see these loops of strain as they pass, we should recognise a procession of loops, consisting of alternately directed strain lines marching past. This movement through the ether of self-closed lines of electric strain constitutes what is called electric radiation.