But the system of bands is at rest for only a particular rate of the rod.  As the latter rotates yet faster, the system of bands now commences to rotate slowly forward (with the disc and rod), then more and more rapidly (the velocity of the rod still increasing), until it finally disintegrates and the bands vanish into the confused flicker of shadows with which the phenomenon commenced.

[Illustration:  PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW.  MONOGRAPH SUPPLEMENT, 17.  PLATE VII. 
                        Fig. 11. 
               Fig. 12.  Fig. 13.]

This cycle now plays itself off in the reverse order if the speed of the rod is allowed gradually to decrease.  The bands appear first moving forward, then more slowly till they come to rest, then moving backward until finally they relapse into confusion.

But let the rate of the rod be not decreased but always steadily increased.  The bands will reappear, this time three of each color with six transition-bands.  As before, the system at first rotates backward, then lies still, and then moves forward until it is dissolved.  As the rod moves still faster, another system appears, two bands of each color forming a diameter and the two diameters lying at right angles.  This system goes through the same cycle of movements.  When the increased velocity of the rod destroys this system, another appears having one band of each color, the two lying on opposite sides of the center.  The system goes through the same phases and is likewise dissolved.  Now, at this point the rod will be found to be rotating at the same speed as the disc itself.

The explanation of the phenomenon is simple.  The bands are not produced by a single interruption of the vision of a sector by a rod, but each band is made up of successive superpositions on the retina of many such single-interruption bands.  The overlapping of bands has been already described (cf.  Fig. 10 and pp. 196-198); superposition depends of course on the same principle.

At the moment when a system of four bands of either color is seen at rest, the rod is moving just one fifth as rapidly as the disc; so that, while the rod goes once around, either sector, say the green one, will have passed behind it exactly four times, and at points which lie 90 deg. apart.  Thus, four red bands are produced which lie at right angles to one another.  But the disc is revolving at least 24 times in a second, the rod therefore at least 4.8 times, so that within the interval of time during which successive stimuli still contribute to the characteristic effect the rod will have revolved several times, and with each revolution four red bands at right angles to one another will have been formed.  And if the rod is moving exactly one fifth as fast as the disc, each new band will be generated at exactly that position on the disc where was the corresponding band of the preceding four.  The system of bands thus appear motionless on the disc.