The electricity thus generated in the wire by such vibratory movements varies in strength proportional to the movement of the armature; therefore the line wire between two places will be filled with electrical pulsation exactly like the aerial pulsations in structure. Fig. 10, p. 98, may be used to illustrate the condition of the wire through which the currents pass. The dark part may represent the strongest part of the wave, while the lighter part would show the weaker part of the wave. The chief difference would be, that electricity travels so fast, that what is there represented as one wave in air with a length of two feet would, in an electric wave, be more than fifty miles long. These induced electric currents are but very transient (see p. 31); and their effect upon the receiver R is to either increase or decrease the power of the magnet there, as they are in one direction or the other, and consequently to vary the attractive power exercised upon the iron plate armature. Let a simple sound be now made in the tube, consisting of 256 vibrations per second: the membrane carrying the iron will vibrate as many times, and so many pulses of induced electricity will be _imposed_ upon the constant current, which will each act upon the receiver, and cause so many vibrations of the armature upon it; and an ear held at P will hear the sound with the same pitch as that at the sending instrument. If two or more sound-waves act simultaneously upon the membrane, its motions must correspond with such combined motions; that is, its motions will be the resultant of all the sound-waves, and the corresponding pulsations in the current must reproduce at R the same effect. Now, when a person speaks in the tube, the membrane is thrown into vibrations more complex in structure than those just mentioned, differing only in number and intensity. The magnet will cause responses from even the minutest motion; and therefore an ear at R will hear what is said at the tube. This was the instrument exhibited at the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, and concerning which Sir William Thompson said on his return to England, "This is the greatest by far of all the marvels of the electric telegraph." The popular impression has been, concerning the telephone, that the _sound_ was in some way conveyed over the wire. It will be obvious to every one who may read this, that such is very far from being the case. The fact is, it is a beautiful example of the convertibility of forces from one form to another. There is first the initial vibratory mechanical motion of the air, which is imparted to the membrane carrying the iron. This motion is converted into electricity in the coil of wire surrounding the electro-magnet, and at the receiving-end is first effective as magnetism, which is again converted into vibratory motion of the iron armature, which motion is imparted to the air, and so becomes again a sound-wave in air like the original one.