From overshoot to voltage clamp.

In 1939, A.L. Hodgkin and I found that the nerve action potential shows an "overshoot"--that is, the interior of the fibre becomes electrically positive during an action potential. In 1948, we did our first experiments with a voltage clamp to investigate the current-voltage relations of the nerve membrane. Between those dates, we spent much time speculating about the mechanism by which ions cross the membrane and how the action potential is generated. This article summarizes these speculations, none of which has been previously published.