In later practical receivers the decoherer was a clapper similar to an electric bell, operated by an electromagnet powered by the coherer current itself. When the radio wave turned on the coherer, the DC current from the battery flowed through the electromagnet, pulling the arm over to give the coherer a tap. This returned the coherer to the nonconductive state, turning off the electromagnet current, and the arm sprang back. If the radio signal was still present, the coherer would immediately turn on again, pulling the clapper over to give it another tap, which would turn it off again. The result was a constant "trembling" of the clapper during the period that the radio signal was on, during the "dots" and "dashes" of the Morse code signal.