This is the method adopted by Mr. Latimer Clark in his use of the instrument constructed by the Electrical Committee of the British Association. We are indebted to Mr. Clark for the drawing of the electrodynamometer in Figure 54, in which Helmholtz's arrangement of two coils is adopted both for the fixed and for the suspended coil[1]. The torsion-head of the instrument, by which the bifilar suspension is adjusted, is represented in Fig. 55. The
Fig. 55.
equality of the tension of the suspension wires is ensured by their being attached to the extremities of a silk thread which passes over a wheel, and their distance is regulated by two guide-wheels, which can be set at the proper distance. The suspended coil can be moved vertically by means of a screw acting on the suspension-wheel, and horizontally in two directions by the sliding pieces shewn at the bottom of Fig. 55. It is adjusted in azimuth by means of the torsion-screw, which turns the torsion-head round a vertical axis (see Art. 459). The azimuth of the suspended coil is ascertained by observing the reflexion of a scale in the mirror, shewn just beneath the axis of the suspended coil.
- ↑ In the actual instrument, the wires conveying the current to and from the coils are not spread out as displayed in the figure, but are kept as close together as possible, so as to neutralize each other's electromagnetic action.
