The red sphere is the charge and the small white sphere is the location of the calculated electric field. This stuff is in 3-D. If you right click with the mouse you can rotate things around.

DR. O. HEAVISIDE has investigated (NATURE, April 19) the slow motion of a charged conducting sphere through a uniform electric field, in a direction parallel to the electric force of the field ...

Typically, Gauss's Law is used to calculate the magnitude of the electric field due to different charge distributions. However, you have to know something about the direction of the electric field ...