circuit is struck by electric waves there is an increase in the currents due to the depolarization of the circuit. If a galvanometer is in the circuit, the increased deflection of the instrument will indicate the presence of the waves.
§ 7. Coherers.—The most sensitive detector of electric waves is the “coherer,” although for metrical work it is not so suitable as that just described. It depends upon the fact discovered by Branly (Comptes rendus, 111, p. 785; 112, p. 90) that the resistance between loose metallic contacts, such as a pile of iron turnings, diminishes when they are struck by an electric wave. One of the forms made by Lodge (The Work of Hertz and some of his Successors, 1894) on this principle consists simply of a glass tube containing iron turnings, in contact with which are wires led into opposite ends of the tube. The arrangement is placed in series with a galvanometer (one of the simplest kind will do) and a battery; when the iron turnings are struck by electric waves their resistance is diminished and the deflection of the galvanometer is increased. Thus the deflection of the galvanometer can be used to indicate the arrival of electric waves. The tube must be tapped between each experiment, and the deflection of the galvanometer brought back to about its original value. This detector is marvellously delicate, but not metrical, the change produced in the resistance depending upon so many things besides the intensity of the waves that the magnitude of the galvanometer deflection is to some extent a matter of chance. Instead of the iron turnings we may use two iron wires, one resting on the other; the resistance of this contact will be altered by the incidence of the waves. To get greater regularity Bose uses, instead of the iron turnings, spiral springs, which are pushed against each other by means of a screw until the most sensitive state is attained. The sensitiveness of the coherer depends on the electromotive force put in the galvanometer circuit. Very sensitive ones can be made by using springs of very fine silver wire coated electrolytically with nickel. Though the impact of electric waves generally produces a diminution of resistance with these loose contacts, yet there are exceptions to the rule. Thus Branly showed that with lead peroxide, PbO2, there is an increase in resistance. Aschkinass proved the same to be true with copper sulphide, CuS; and Bose showed that with potassium there is an increase of resistance and great power of self-recovery of the original resistance after the waves have ceased. Several theories of this action have been proposed. Branly (Lumière électrique, 40, p. 511) thought that the small sparks which certainly pass between adjacent portions of metal clear away layers of oxide or some other kind of non-conducting film, and in this way improve the contact. It would seem that if this theory is true the films must be of a much more refined kind than layers of oxide or dirt, for the coherer effect has been observed with clean non-oxidizable metals. Lodge explains the effect by supposing that the heat produced by the sparks fuses adjacent portions of metal into contact and hence diminishes the resistance; it is from this view of the action that the name coherer is applied to the detector. Auerbeck thought that the effect was a mechanical one due to the electrostatic attractions between the various small pieces of metal. It is probable that some or all of these causes are at work in some cases, but the effects of potassium make us hesitate to accept any of them as the complete explanation. Blanc (Ann. chim. phys., 1905, [8] 6, p. 5), as the result of a long series of experiments, came to the conclusion that coherence is due to pressure. He regarded the outer layers as different from the mass of the metal and having a much greater specific resistance. He supposed that when two pieces of metal are pressed together the molecules diffuse across the surface, modifying the surface layers and increasing their conductivity.
§ 8. Generators of Electric Waves.—Bose (Phil. Mag. 43, p. 55) designed an instrument which generates electric waves with a length of not more than a centimetre or so, and therefore allows their properties to be demonstrated with apparatus of moderate dimensions. The waves are excited by sparking between two platinum beads carried by jointed electrodes; a platinum sphere is placed between the beads, and the distance between the beads and the sphere can be adjusted by bending the electrodes. The diameter of the sphere is 8 mm., and the wave length of the shortest electrical waves generated is said to be about 6 mm. The beads are connected with the terminals of a small induction coil, which, with the battery to work it and the sparking arrangement, are enclosed in a metal box, the radiation passing out through a metal tube opposite to the spark gap. The ordinary vibrating break of the coil is not used, a single spark made by making and breaking the circuit by means of a button outside the box being employed instead. The detector is one of the spiral spring coherers previously described; it is shielded from external disturbance by being enclosed in a metal box provided with a funnel-shaped opening to admit the radiation. The wires leading from the coherers to the galvanometer are also surrounded by metal tubes to protect them from stray radiation. The radiating apparatus and the receiver are mounted on stands sliding in an optical bench. If a parallel beam of radiation is required, a cylindrical lens of ebonite or sulphur is mounted in a tube fitting on to the radiator tube and stopped by a guide when the spark is at the principal focal line of the lens. For experiments requiring angular measurements a spectrometer circle is mounted on one of the sliding stands, the receiver being carried on a radial arm and pointing to the centre of the circle. The arrangement is represented in fig. 5.
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| Fig. 5. |
With this apparatus the laws of reflection, refraction and polarization can readily be verified, and also the double refraction of crystals, and of bodies possessing a fibrous or laminated structure such as jute or books. (The double refraction of electric waves seems first to have been observed by Righi, and other researches on this subject have been made by Garbasso and Mack.) Bose showed the rotation of the plane of polarization by means of pieces of twisted jute rope; if the pieces were arranged so that their twists were all in one direction and placed in the path of the radiation, they rotated the plane of polarization in a direction depending upon the direction of twist; if they were mixed so that there were as many twisted in one direction as the other, there was no rotation.
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| Fig. 6. |
A series of experiments showing the complete analogy between electric and light waves is described by Righi in his book L’Ottica delle oscillazioni elettriche. Righi’s exciter, which is especially convenient when large statical electric machines are used instead of induction coils, is shown in fig. 6. E and F are balls connected with the terminals of the machine, and AB and CD are conductors insulated from each other, the ends B, C, between which the sparks pass, being immersed in vaseline oil. The period of the vibrations given out by the system is adjusted by means of metal plates M and N attached to AB and CD. When the waves are produced by induction coils or by electrical machines the intervals between the emission of different sets of waves occupy by far the largest part of the time. Simon (Wied. Ann., 1898, 64, p. 293; Phys. Zeit., 1901, 2, p. 253), Duddell (Electrician, 1900, 46, p. 269) and Poulsen (Electrotech. Zeits., 1906, 27, p. 1070) reduced these intervals very considerably by using the electric arc to excite the waves, and in this way produced electrical waves possessing great energy. In these methods the terminals between which the arc is passing are connected through coils with self-induction L to the plates of a condenser of capacity C. The arc is not steady, but is continually varying. This is especially the case when it passes through hydrogen. These variations excite vibrations with a period 2π√(LC) in the circuit containing the capacity of the self-induction. By this method Duddell produced waves with a frequency of 40,000. Poulsen, who cooled the terminals of the arc, produced waves with a frequency of 1,000,000, while Stechodro (Ann. der Phys. 27, p. 225) claims to have produced waves with three hundred times this frequency, i.e. having a wave length of about a metre. When the self-induction
