is the same but less compressed. In addition to the metallic salts a flux has to be introduced to prevent the formation of a non-conducting ash, and this renders it desirable to place the carbons in a downward pointing direction to get rid of the slag so formed. Bremer first suggested in 1898 for this purpose the fluorides of calcium, strontium or barium. When such carbons are used to form an electric arc the metallic salts deflagrate and produce a flame round the arc which is strongly coloured, the object being to produce a warm yellow glow, instead of the somewhat violet and cold light of the pure carbon arc, as well as a greater emission of light. As noxious vapours are however given off, flame arcs can only be used out of doors. Countless researches have been made on the subject of carbon manufacture, and the art has been brought to great perfection.
Special manuals must be consulted for further information (see especially a treatise on Carbon making for all electrical purposes, by F. Jehl, London, 1906).
 | |
| Fig. 4. | Fig. 5. |
The physical phenomena of the electric arc are best examined by forming a carbon arc between two carbon rods of the above description, held in line in a special apparatus, and arranged so as to be capable of being moved to or from each other with a slow and easily regulated motion. Physical phenomena. An arrangement of this kind is called a hand-regulated arc lamp (fig. 4). If such an arc lamp is connected to a source of electric supply having an electromotive force preferably of 100 volts, and if some resistance is included in the circuit, say about 5 ohms, a steady and continuous arc is formed when the carbons are brought together and then slightly separated. Its appearance may be most conveniently examined by projecting its image upon a screen of white paper by means of an achromatic lens. A very little examination of the distribution of light from the arc shows that the illuminating or candle-power is not the same in different directions. If the carbons are vertical and the positive carbon is the upper of the two, the illuminating power is greatest in a direction at an angle inclined about 40 or 50 degrees below the horizon, and at other directions has different values, which may be represented by the lengths of radial lines drawn from a centre, the extremities of which define a curve called the illuminating curve of the arc lamp (fig. 5). Considerable differences exist between the forms of the illuminating-power curves of the continuous and alternating current and the open or enclosed arcs. The chief portion of the emitted light proceeds from the incandescent crater; hence the form of the illuminating-power curve, as shown by A. P. Trotter in 1892, is due to the apparent area of the crater surface which is visible to an eye regarding the arc in that direction. The form of the illuminating-power curve varies with the length of the arc and relative size of the carbons. Leaving out of account for the moment the properties of the arc as an illuminating agent, the variable factors with which we are concerned are (i.) the current through the arc; (ii.) the potential difference of the carbons; (iii.) the length of the arc; and (iv.) the size of the carbons. Taking in the first place the typical direct-current arc between solid carbons, and forming arcs of different lengths and with carbons of different sizes, it will be found that, beginning at the lowest current capable of forming a true arc, the potential difference of the carbons (the arc P.D.) decreases as the current increases. Up to a certain current strength the arc is silent, but at a particular critical value P.D. suddenly drops about 10 volts, the current at the same time rising 2 or 3 amperes. At that moment the arc begins to hiss, and in this hissing condition, if the current is still further increased, P.D. remains constant over wide limits. This drop in voltage on hissing was first noticed by A. Niaudet (La Lumière électrique, 1881, 3, p. 287). It has been shown by Mrs Ayrton (Journ. Inst. Elec. Eng. 28, 1899, p. 400) that the hissing is mainly due to the oxygen which gains access from the air to the crater, when the latter becomes so large by reason of the increase of the current as to overspread the end of the positive carbon. According to A. E. Blondel and Hans Luggin, hissing takes place whenever the current density becomes greater than about 0.3 or 0.5 ampere per square millimetre of crater area.
The relation between the current, the carbon P.D., and the length of arc in the case of the direct-current arc has been investigated by many observers with the object of giving it mathematical expression.
Let V stand for the potential difference of the carbons in volts, A for the current through the arc in amperes, L for the length of the arc in millimetres, R for the resistance of the arc; and let a, b, c, d, &c., be constants. Erik Edlund in 1867, and other workers after him, considered that their experiments showed that the relation between V and L could be expressed by a simple linear equation,
Later researches by Mrs Ayrton (Electrician, 1898, 41, p. 720), however, showed that for a direct-current arc of given size with solid carbons, the observed values of V can be better represented as a function both of A and of L of the form
| V = a + bL + | c + dL | . |
| A |
In the case of direct-current arcs formed with solid carbons, Edlund and other observers agree that the arc resistance R may be expressed by a simple straight line law, R = e + fL. If the arc is formed with cored carbons, Mrs Ayrton demonstrated that the lines expressing resistance as a function of arc length are no longer straight, but that there is a rather sudden dip down when the length of the arc is less than 3 mm.
The constants in the above equation for the potential difference of the carbons were determined by Mrs Ayrton in the case of solid carbons to be—
| V = 38.9 + 2.07L + | 11.7 + 10.5L | . |
| A |
There has been much debate as to the meaning to be given to the constant a in the above equation, which has a value apparently not far from forty volts for a direct-current arc with solid carbons. The suggestion made in 1867 by Edlund (Phil. Mag., 1868, 36, p. 358), that it implied the existence of a counter-electromotive force in the arc, was opposed by Luggin in 1889 (Wien. Ber. 98, p. 1198), Ernst Lecher in 1888 (Wied. Ann., 1888, 33, p. 609), and by Franz Stenger in 1892 (Id. 45, p. 33); whereas Victor von Lang and L. M. Arons in 1896 (Id. 30, p. 95), concluded that experiment indicated the presence of a counter-electromotive force of 20 volts. A. E. Blondel concludes, from experiments made by him in 1897 (The Electrician, 1897, 39, p. 615), that there is no counter-electromotive force in the arc greater than a fraction of a volt. Subsequently W. Duddëll (Proc. Roy. Soc., 1901, 68, p. 512) described experiments tending to prove the real existence of a counter-electromotive force in the arc, probably having a thermo-electric origin, residing near the positive electrode, and of an associated lesser adjuvant e.m.f. near the negative carbon.
This fall in voltage between the carbons and the arc is not uniformly distributed. In 1898 Mrs Ayrton described the results of experiments showing that if V1 is the potential difference between the positive carbon and the arc, then
| V1 = 31.28 + | 9 + 3.1L | ; |
| A |
and if V2 is the potential difference between the arc and the negative carbon, then
| V2 = 7.6 + | 13.6 | , |
| A |
where A is the current through the arc in amperes and L is the length of the arc in millimetres.
The total potential difference between the carbons, minus the fall in potential down the arc, is therefore equal to the sum of V1 + V2 = V3.
| Hence V3 = 38.88 + | 22.6 + 3.1L | . |
| A |
The difference between this value and the value of V, the total potential difference between the carbons, gives the loss in potential
