various Substances for the Electric Ray," 'Roy. Soc. Proc.,' vol. 59, p. 163). The receiver is made linear by arranging bits of steel spiral springs side by side, the sensitive surface being 3 mm. broad and 2 cm. in length. An electrical current enters along the breadth of the top spiral and leaves by the lowest spiral, having to traverse the intermediate spirals along the numerous points of contact. The resistance of the receiving circuit is thus almost entirely concentrated
Fig. 5.
The Spiral Spring Coherer.
at the sensitive contact surface, there being little useless short circuiting by the mass of the conducting layer. When electric radiation is absorbed by the sensitive surface, there is a sudden diminution of the resistance, and the galvanometer in circuit is violently deflected. By adjusting the electromotive force of the circuit the sensitiveness of the receiver may be increased to any extent desirable. The receiver at each particular adjustment responds best to a definite range of vibration lying within about an octave. The same receiver could, however, be made to respond to a different range by an appropriate change of the electromotive force acting on the circuit. Very careful adjustment of the E.M.F. of the circuit is necessary to make the receiver respond at its best to a particular range of electric vibration.
The Cylindrical Grating.—The source of radiation—the spark gap—being a line, the curved diffraction grating is made cylindrical. The spark gap is always kept vertical; the grating is made of equi-distant metallic strips, which are vertical and parallel. A piece of thin sheet ebonite is bent in the shape of a portion of a cylinder and kept in that shape by screwing against upper and lower circular guide pieces of wood. Against the concave side of the ebonite are stuck strips of rather thick tinfoil at equal intervals. Five different
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