An experiment is described which enables the student to measure the permittivity of space and the speed of light by means of the Maxwell commutator bridge. The part of the apparatus which had to be specially constructed consists of a 1000-cps electrically driven tuning fork switch and a parallel plate capacitor without guard rings but arranged so that the edge correction could be calculated. The rest of the essential apparatus is generally on hand in the laboratory or else can be purchased at reasonable cost. The accuracy of the experiment is limited chiefly by the accuracy of the construction of the capacitor. The results obtained have given the speed of light to within 0.5 percent.