Curiosities of Science, Past and Present / A Book for Old and Young

by John Timbs

DURATION OF THE ELECTRIC SPARK.

By means of Professor Wheatstone’s apparatus, the Duration of the Electric Spark has been ascertained not to exceed the twenty-five-thousandth part of a second. A cannon-ball, if illumined in its flight by a flash of lightning, would, in consequence of the momentary duration of the light, appear to be stationary, and even the wings of an insect, that move ten thousand times in a second, would seem at rest.