Assume, for example, [that] these devices are batteries, primary or secondary, or continuous current dynamo machines. The waves or impulses of opposite direction, composing the main current, have a natural tendency to divide between the two branches, but by reason of the opposite electrical character or effect of the two branches one will offer an easy passage to a current of a certain direction, while the other will offer a relatively high resistance to the passage of the same current. The result of this distribution is that the waves of current of one sign will - partly or wholly - pass over one of the paths or branches while those of the opposite sign pass over the other.
There may be thus obtained from an alernating current two or more direct currents, without the employment of any commutator such as it has been heretofore regarded as necessary to use. The current in either branch may be used in the same way and for the same purposes as any other direct current, that is, it may be made to charge secondary batteries, energize electro-magnets, or used for any other analagous purpose.
In the drawings some of the various ways in which invention may be carried out are illustrated.
The several figures are diagrammatic in character and will be described in detail in their order.
Figure 1 represents a plan of directing the alter
