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ELECTRIC WAVES

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 208 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ELECTRIC WAVES . § 1. Clerk See also:

Maxwell proved that on his theory electro-magnetic disturbances are propagated as a See also:wave See also:motion through the See also:dielectric, while See also:Lord See also:Kelvin in 1853 (Phil. Mag. [4] 5, p. 393) proved from electro-magnetic theory that the See also:discharge of a See also:condenser is oscillatory, a result which Feddersen (Pogg. See also:Ann. 103, p. 69, &c.) verified by a beautiful See also:series of experiments. The oscillating discharge of a condenser had been inferred by See also:Henry as See also:long ago as 1842 from his experiments on the magnetization produced in needles by the discharge of a condenser. From these two results it follows that electric waves must be passing through the dielectric surrounding a condenser in the See also:act of discharging, but it was not until 1887 that the existence of such waves was demonstrated by See also:direct experiment. This See also:great step was made by See also:Hertz (Wied.

Ann. 34, pp. 155, 551, 609; Ausbreitung der elektrischen Kraft, See also:

Leipzig, 1892), whose experiments on this subject See also:form one of the greatest contributions ever made to experimental physics. The difficulty which had stood in the way of the observations of these waves was the See also:absence of any method of detecting See also:electrical and magnetic forces, reversed some millions of times per second, and only lasting for an exceedingly See also:short See also:time. This was removed by Hertz, who showed that such forces would produce small See also:sparks between pieces of See also:metal very nearly in contact, and that these sparks were sufficiently See also:regular to be used to detect electric waves and to investigate their properties. Other and moredelicate methods have subsequently been discovered, but the results obtained by Hertz with his detector were of such See also:signal importance, that we shall begin our See also:account of experiments on these waves by a description of some of Hertz's more fundamental experiments. To produce the waves Hertz used two forms of vibrator. The first is represented in fig. 1. A and B are two See also:zinc plates about A B T® ®amecamama. C E s f 40 cm. square; to these See also:brass rods, C, D, each about 30 cm. long, are soldered, terminating in brass balls E and F. To get See also:good results it is necessary that these balls should be very brightly polished, and as they get roughened by the sparks which pass between them it is necessary to repolish them at short intervals; they should be shaded from See also:light and from sparks, or other source of ultra-See also:violet light.

In See also:

order to excite the waves, C and D are connected to the two poles of an See also:induction coil; sparks See also:cross the See also:air-See also:gap which becomes a conductor, and the charges on the plates oscillate backwards and forwards like the charges on the coatings of a See also:Leyden See also:jar when it is short-circuited. The See also:object of polishing the balls and screening off light is to get a sudden and See also:sharp discharge; if the balls are rough there will be sharp points from which the See also:charge will gradually leak, and the discharge will not be abrupt enough to start electrical vibrations, as these have an exceedingly short See also:period. From the open form of this vibrator we should expect the See also:radiation to be very large and the See also:rate of decay of the See also:amplitude very rapid. Bjerknes (Wied. Ann. 44, p. 74) found that the amplitude See also:fell to 1/e of the See also:original value, after a time 4T where T was the period of the electrical vibrations. Thus after a few vibrations the amplitude becomes inappreciable. To detect the waves produced by this vibrator Hertz used a piece of See also:copper See also:wire See also:bent into a circle, the ends being furnished with two balls, or a See also:ball and a point connected by a See also:screw, so that the distance between them admitted of very See also:fine See also:adjustment. The See also:radius of the circle for use with the vibrator just described was 35 cm., and was so chosen that the See also:free period of the detector might be the same as that of the vibrator, and the effects in it increased by resonance. It is evident, however, that with a See also:primary See also:system as greatly damped as the vibrator used by Hertz, we could not expect very marked resonance effects, and as a See also:matter of fact the accurate timing of vibrator and detector in this See also:case is not very important. With electrical vibrators which can maintain a large number of vibrations, resonance effects are very striking, as is beautifully shown by the following experiment due to See also:Lodge (Nature, 41, p.

368), whose researches have greatly advanced our knowledge of electric waves. A and C (fig. 2) are Fig. 2. two Leyden jars, whose inner and See also:

outer coatings are connected by wires, B and D, bent so as to include a considerable See also:area. There is an air-break in the See also:circuit connecting the inside and outside of one of the jars, A, and electrical oscillations are started in A by joining the inside and outside with the terminals of a coil or electrical See also:machine. The circuit in the jar C is provided with a sliding piece, F, by means of which the self-induction of the discharging circuit, and, therefore, the time of an electrical oscillation of the jar, can be adjusted. The inside and outside of this jar are put almost, but not quite, into electrical contact by means of a piece of See also:tin-See also:foil, E, bent over the See also:lip of the jar. The jars are placed See also:face to face so that the circuits B and D are parallel to each other, and approximately at right angles to the See also:line joining their centres. When the electrical machine is in See also:action sparks pass across the air-break in the circuit in A, and by moving the slider F it is possible to find one position for it in which sparks pass from the inside to the outside of C across the tin-foil, while when the slider is moved a short distance on either See also:side of this position the sparks cease. Hertz found that when he held his detector in the See also:neighbour-See also:hood of the vibrator See also:minute sparks passed between the balls. These sparks were not stopped when a large See also:plate of non-conducting substance, such as the See also:wall of a See also:room, was interposed between the vibrator and detector, but a large plate of very thin metal stopped them completely.

To illustrate the See also:

analogy between electric waves and waves of light Hertz found another form of apparatus more convenient. The, vibrator consisted of two equal brass cylinders, 12 cm. long and 3 cm. in See also:diameter, placed with their axes coincident, and in the See also:focal line of a large zinc parabolic See also:mirror about 2 M. high, with a focal length of 12'5 cm. The ends of the cylinders nearest each other, between which the sparks passed, were carefully polished. The detector, which was placed in the focal line of an equal parabolic mirror, consisted of two lengths of wire, each having a straight piece about 50 cm. long and a curved piece about 15 cm. long bent See also:round at right angles so as to pass through the back of the mirror. The ends which came through the mirror were connected with a spark See also:micrometer, the sparks being observed from behind the mirror. The mirrors are shown in fig. 3. § 2. Reflection and See also:Refraction.—To show the reflection of the waves Hertz placed the mirrors side by side, so that their openings looked in the same direction, and their axes converged at a point about 3 M. from the mirrors. No sparks were then observed in the detector when the vibrator was in action. When, however, a large zinc plate about 2 M. square was placed at right angles to the line bisecting the See also:angle between the axes of the mirrors sparks became visible, but disappeared again when the metal plate was See also:twisted through an angle of about 15° to either side. This experiment showed that electric waves are reflected, and that, approximately at any rate, the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection.

To show refraction Hertz used a large See also:

prism made of hard See also:pitch, about 1.5 M. high,-with a slant side of 1.2 M. and an angle of 3o°. When the waves from the vibrator passed through this the sparks in the detector were not excited when the axes of the two mirrors were parallel, but appeared when the See also:axis of the mirror containing the detector made a certain angle with the axis of that containing the vibrator. When the system was adjusted for minimum deviation the sparks were most vigorous when the angle between the axes of the mirrors was 22°. This corresponds to an See also:index of refraction of 1.69. § 3.. Analogy to a Plate of See also:Tourmaline.—If a See also:screen be made by winding wire round a large rectangular framework, so thatthe turns of the wire are parallel to one pair of sides of the See also:frame, and if this screen be interposed between the parabolic mirrors when placed so as to face each other, there will be no sparks in the detector when the turns of the wire are parallel to the focal lines of the mirror; but if the frame is turned through a right angle so that the wires are perpendicular to the focal lines of the mirror the sparks will recommence. If the framework is substituted for the metal plate in the experiment on the reflection of electric waves, sparks will appear in the detector when the wires are parallel to the focal lines of the mirrors, and will disappear when the wires are at right angles to these lines. Thus the framework reflects but does not transmit the waves when the electric force in them is parallel to the wires, while it transmits but does not reflect waves in which the electric force is at right angles to the wires. The wire framework behaves towards the electric waves exactly as a plate of tourmaline does to waves of light. Du Bois and See also:Rubens (Wied. Ann. 49, p.

593), by using a framework See also:

wound with very fine wire placed very See also:close together, have succeeded in polarizing waves of radiant See also:heat, whose wave length, although longer than that of See also:ordinary light, is very small compared with that of electric waves. § 4. Angle of Polarization.—When light polarized at right angles to the See also:plane of incidence falls on a refracting substance at an angle tan –Iµ, where u is the refractive index of the sub-stance, all the light is refracted and none reflected; whereas when light is polarized in the plane of incidence, some of the light is always reflected whatever the angle of incidence. Trouton (Nature, 39, p. 391) showed that similar effects take See also:place with electric waves. From a See also:paraffin wall 3 ft. thick, reflection always took place when the electric force in the incident wave was at right angles to the plane of incidence, whereas at a• certain angle of incidence there was no reflection when the vibrator was turned, so that the electric force was in the plane of incidence. This shows that on the electromagnetic theory of light the electric force is at right angles to the plane of polarization. § 5. Stationary Electrical Vibrations.—Hertz (Wied. Ann. 34, p. 609) made his experiments on these in a large room about 15 M. long.

The vibrator, which was of the type first described, was placed at one end of the room, its plates being parallel to the wall, at the other end a piece of See also:

sheet zinc about 4 M. by 2 M. was placed vertically against the wall. The detector—the circular See also:ring previously described—was held so that its plane was parallel to the metal plates of the vibrator, its centre on the line at right angles to the metal plate bisecting at right angles the spark gap of the vibrator, and with the spark gap of the detector parallel to that of the vibrator. The following effects were observed when the detector was moved about. When it was close up to the zinc plate there were no sparks, but they began to pass feebly as soon as it was moved forward a little way from the plate, and increased rapidly in brightness until it was about 1.8 m. from the plate, when they attained their maximum. When its distance was still further increased they diminished in brightness, and vanished again at a distance of about 4 M. from the plate. When-the distance was still further increased they reappeared, attained another maximum, and so on. They thus exhibited a remarkable periodicity similar to that which occurs when stationary vibrations are produced by the interference of direct waves with those reflected from a See also:surface placed at right angles to the direction of See also:propagation. Similar periodic alterations in the spark were observed by Hertz when the waves, instead of passing freely through the air and being reflected by a metal plate at the end of the room, were led along wires, as in the arrangement shown in fig. 4. L and K are metal plates placed parallel to the plates of the vibrator, long parallel wires being attached to act as guides to the waves which were reflected from the isolated end. (Hertz used only one plate and one wire, but the See also:double set of plates and wires introduced by See also:Sarasin and De la Rive make the results more definite.) In this case the detector is best placed so that its plane is at right angles to the wires, while the air space is parallel to the plane containing the wires. The sparks instead of vanishing when the detector is at the far end of the wire are a maximum in this position, but See also:wax and wane periodically as the detector is moved along the wires.

The most obvious See also:

interpretation of these experiments was the one given by Hertz—that there was interference between the direct waves given out by the vibrator and those reflected either from the plate or from the ends of the wire, this interference giving rise to stationary waves. The places where the electric force was a maximum were the places where the sparks were brightest, and the places where the electric force was zero were the places where the sparks vanished. On this explanation the distance between two consecutive places where the sparks vanished would be See also:half the wave length of the waves given out by the vibrator. Some very interesting experiments made by Sarasin and De la Rive (Comptes rendus, 115, p. 489) showed that this explanation could not be the true one, since by using detectors of different sizes they found that the distance between two consecutive places where the sparks vanished depended mainly upon the See also:size of the detector, and very little upon that of the vibrator. With small detectors they found the distance small, with large detectors, large; in fact it is directly proportional to the diameter of the detector. We can see that this result is a consequence of the large damping of the oscillations of the vibrator and the very small damping of those of the detector. Bjerknes showed that the time taken for the amplitude of the vibrations of the vibrator to sink to 1/e of their original value was only 4T, while for the detector it was 5ooT', when T and T' are respectively the times of vibration of the vibrator and the detector. The rapid decay of the oscillations of the vibrator will stifle the interference between the direct and the reflected wave, as the amplitude of the direct wave will, since it is emitted later, be much smaller than that of the reflected one, and not able to annul its effects completely; while the well-maintained vibrations of the detector will interfere and produce the effects observed by Sarasin and De la Rive. To see this let us consider the extreme case in which the oscillations of the vibrator are absolutely dead-See also:beat. Here an impulse, starting from the vibrator on its way to the reflector, strikes against the detector and sets it in vibration; it then travels up to the plate and is reflected, the electric force in the impulse being reversed by reflection. After reflection the impulse again strikes the detector, which is still vibrating from the effects of the first impact; if the phase of this vibration is such that the reflected impulse tends to produce a current round the detector in the same direction as that which is circulating from the effects of the first impact, the sparks will be increased, but if the reflected impulse tends to produce a current in the opposite direction the sparks will be diminished.

Since the electric force is reversed by reflection, the greatest increase in the sparks will take place when the impulse finds, on its return, the detector in the opposite phase to that in which it See also:

left it; that is, if the time which has elapsed between the departure and return of the impulse is equal to an See also:odd multiple of half the time of vibration of the detector. If d is the distance of the detector from the reflector when the sparks are brightest, and V the velocity of propagation of electromagnetic disturbance, then 2d/V = (2n + 1)(T'/2) ; where n is an integer and T' the time of vibration of the detector, the distance between two spark See also:maxima will be VT'/2, and the places where the sparks are a minimum will be midway between the maxima. Sarasin and De la Rive found that when the same detector was used the distance between two spark maxima was the same with the waves through air reflected from a metal plate and with those guided by wires and reflected from the free ends of the wire, the inference being that the velocity of waves along wires is the same as that through the air. This result, which follows from Maxwell's theory, when the wires are not too fine, had beenquestioned by Hertz on account of some of his experiments on wires. § 6. Detectors.—The use of a detector with a period of vibration of its own thus tends to make the experiments more complicated, and many other forms of detector have been employed by subsequent experimenters. For example, in place of the sparks in air the luminous discharge through a rarefied See also:gas has been used by Dragoumis, Lecher (who used tubes without electrodes laid across the wires in an arrangement resembling that shown in fig. 7) and Arons. A See also:tube containing neon at a See also:low pressure is especially suitable for this purpose. Zehnder (Wied. Ann. 47, p.

777) used an exhausted tube to which an See also:

external electromotive force almost but not quite sufficient of itself to produce a discharge was applied; here the additional electromotive force due to the waves was sufficient to start the discharge. Detectors depending on the heat produced by the rapidly alternating currents have been used by Paalzow and Rubens, Rubens and See also:Ritter, and I. Kiemencic. Rubens measured the heat produced by a bolometer arrangement, and Klemencic used a thermo-electric method for the same purpose; in See also:con-sequence of the great increase in the sensitiveness of galvanometers these methods are now very frequently resorted to. Boltzmann used an See also:electroscope as a detector. The spark gap consisted of a ball and a point, the ball being connected with the electroscope and the point with a See also:battery of 200 dry cells. When the spark passed the cells charged up the electroscope. Ritter utilized the contraction of a See also:frog's See also:leg as a detector, See also:Lucas and See also:Garrett the See also:explosion produced by the sparks in an explosive mixture of See also:hydrogen and See also:oxygen; while Bjerknes and Franke used the See also:mechanical attraction between oppositely charged conductors. If the two sides of the spark gap are connected with the two pairs of quadrants of a very delicate See also:electrometer, the See also:needle of which is connected with one pair of quadrants, there will be a deflection of the electrometer when the detector is struck by electric waves. A very efficient detector is that in-vented by E. See also:Rutherford (Trans. See also:Roy.

See also:

Soc. A. 1897, 189, p. 1); it consists of a bundle of fine See also:iron wires magnetized to saturation and placed inside a small magnetizing coil, through which the electric waves cause rapidly alternating currents to pass which demagnetize the soft iron. If the See also:instrument is used to detect waves in air, long straight wires are attached to the ends of the demagnetizing coil to collect the See also:energy from the See also:field; to investigate waves in wires it is sufficient to make a See also:loop or two in the wire and place the magnetized piece of iron inside it. The amount of demagnetization which can be observed by the See also:change in the deflection of a See also:magnetometer placed near the iron, See also:measures the intensity of the electric waves, and very accurate determinations can be made with ease with this apparatus. It is also very delicate, though in this respect it does not equal the'detector to be next described, the coherer; Rutherford got indications in 1895 when the vibrator was 4 of a mile away from the detector, and where the waves had to See also:traverse a thickly populated See also:part of See also:Cambridge. It can also be used to measure the coefficient of damping of the electric waves, for since the wire is initially magnetized to saturation, if the direction of the current when it first begins to flow in the magnetizing coil is such as to tend to increase the magnetization of the wire, it will produce no effect, and it will not be until the current is reversed that the wire will lose some of its magnetization. The effect then gives the measure of the intensity half a period after the commencement of the waves. If the wire is put in the coil the opposite way, i.e. so that the magnetic force due to the current begins at once to demagnetize the wire, the demagnetization gives a measure of the initial intensity of the waves. Comparing this result with that obtained when the wires were reversed, we get the coefficient of damping. A very convenient detector of electric waves is the one discovered almost simultaneously by See also:Fessenden (Electrotech.

Zeits., 1903, 24, p. 586) and Schlomilch (ibid. p. 959). This consists of an electrolytic See also:

cell in which one of the electrodes is an exceedingly fine point. The electromotive force in the circuit is small, and there is large polarization in the circuit with only a small current. When the circuit is See also:stuck by electric waves there is an increase in the currents due to the depolarization of the circuit. If a See also: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 See also:work it is not so suitable as that just described. It depends upon the fact discovered by Branly (Comptes rendus, III, p. 785; 112, p. 90) that the resistance between loose metallic contacts, such as a See also: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 See also:

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 See also: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 See also: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, See also:spiral springs, which are pushed against each other by means of a screw until the most sensitive See also: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 See also:silver wire coated electrolytically with See also:nickel. Though the impact of electric waves generally produces a diminution of resistance with these loose contacts, yet there are exceptions to the See also:rule. Thus Branly showed that with See also: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 See also:potassium there is an increase of resistance and great See also:power of self-recovery of the original resistance after the waves have ceased.

Several theories of this action have been proposed. Branly (Lumiere electrique, 40, p. 511) thought that the small sparks which certainly pass between adjacent portions of metal clear away layers of See also:

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 See also:complete explanation. See also: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 See also: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 in-creasing 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 See also:

platinum beads carried by jointed electrodes; a platinum See also:sphere is placed between the beads, and the distance between the beads and the sphere can be adjusted by bending the electrodes. The diameter ofthe 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 See also: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 See also:button outside the box being employed instead. The detector is one of the spiral See also:spring coherers previously described; it is shielded from external disturbance by being enclosed in a metal box provided with a See also: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 See also:receiver are mounted on stands sliding in an See also:optical See also:bench. If a parallel See also:beam of radiation is required, a cylindrical See also:lens of ebonite or See also:sulphur is mounted in a tube fitting on to the radiator tube and stopped by a See also:guide when the spark is at the See also: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 See also:

arm and pointing to the centre of the circle. The arrangement is represented in fig. 5. With this apparatus the See also: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. A series of experiments showing the complete analogy between electric and light waves is described by Righi in his See also:book L'Ottica delle oscillazioni elettriche. Righi's exciter, which is especially convenient when large statical electric See also: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 See also: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. See also:Simon (Wied.

Ann., 1898, 64, p. 293; Phys. Zest., 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 See also:

variations excite vibrations with a period 2sr (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 See also:

hundred times this frequency, i.e. having a wave length of about a See also:metre. When the self-induction and capacity are large so that the frequency comes within the limits of the frequency of audible notes, the system gives out a musical See also:note, and the arrangement is often referred to as the singing arc. § 9. Waves in Wires.—Many problems on electric waves along wires can readily be investigated by a method due to Lecher (Wied. Ann. 41, p. 850), and known as Lecher's See also:bridge, which furnishes us with a means of dealing with waves of a definite and determinable wave-length. In this arrangement (fig. 7) two large plates A and B are, as in Hertz's exciter, connected with the terminals of an induction coil; opposite these and insulated from them are two smaller plates D, E, to which long parallel wires DFH, EGJ are attached. These wires are bridged across by a wire LM, and their farther ends H, J, may be insulated, or connected together, or with the plates of a condenser.

To detect the waves in the circuit beyond the bridge, Lecher used an exhausted tube placed across the wires, and Rubens a bolometer, but Rutherford's detector is the most convenient and accurate. If this detector is placed in a fixed position at the end of the circuit, it is found that the deflections of this detector depend greatly upon the position of the bridge LM, rising rapidly to a maximum for some positions, and falling rapidly away when the bridge is displaced. As the bridge is moved from the coil end towards the detector the deflections show periodic variations, such as are represented in fig. 8 when the ordinates represent the deflections of the detector and the abscissae the distance of the bridge from the ends D, E. The maximum deflections of the detector correspond to the positions in which the two circuits DFLMGE, HLMJ (in which the vibrations are but slightly damped) are in resonance. For since the self-induction and resistance of the bridge LM is very small compared with that of the circuit beyond, it follows from the theory of circuits in parallel that only a small part of the current will in See also:

general flow round the longer circuit ; it is only when the two circuits DFLMGE, HLMJ are in resonance that a considerable current will flow round the latter. Hence when we get a maximum effect in the detector we know that the waves we are dealing with are those corresponding to the free periods of the system HLMJ, so that if we know the free periods of this circuit we know the wave length of the electric waves under See also:consideration. Thus if the ends of the wires H, J are free and have no capacity, the current along them must vanish at H and J, which must be in opposite electric See also:condition. Hence half the wave length must be an odd submultiple of the length of the circuit HLMJ. If H and J are connected together the wave length must be a submultiple of the length of this circuit. When the capacity at the ends is appreciable the wave length of the circuit is 224 1te 107.5 oo 02.5 m 77.5 i~~ - ~~ 10 47.5 _ 40 si•6 00 T00 720 050 040 BOO 560 520 {00 440 400 300 320 280 2{0 200 160 120 e0 40 025 Distances in centimetres along wires determined by a somewhat complex expression. To facilitate the determination of the wave length in such cases, Lecher introduced a second bridge L'M', and moved this about until the deflection of the detector was a maximum; when this occurs the wave length is one of those corresponding to the closed circuit LMM'L', and must there-fore be a submultiple of the length of the circuit.

Lecher showed that if instead of using a single wire LM to form the bridge, he used two parallel wires PQ, LM, placed close together, the currents in the further circuit were hardly appreciably diminished when the See also:

main wires were cut between PL and QM. Blondlot used a modification of this apparatus better suited for the See also:production of short waves. In his form (fig. 9) the exciter consists of two semicircular arms connected with the terminals of an induction coil, and the long wires, instead of being connected with the small plates, form a circuit round the exciter. As an example of the use of Lecher's arrangement, we may quote Drude's application of the method to find the specific induction capacity of dielectrics under electric oscillations of varying frequency. In this application the ends of the wire are connected to the plates of a condenser, the space between whose plates can be filled with the liquid whose specific inductive capacity is required, and the bridge is moved until the detector at the end of the circuit gives the maxi-mum deflection. Then if X is the wave length of the waves, X is the wave length of one of the free vibrations of the system HLM J ; hence if C. is the capacity of the condenser at the end in electrostatic measure we have 21xl cot X C 2il C'l x where 1 is the distance of FIG. 9. the condenser from the bridge and C' is the capacity of unit length of the wire. In the condenser part of the lines of force will pass through air and part through the dielectric; hence C will be of the form Co+KCI where K is the specific inductive capacity of the dielectric. Hence if l is the distance of maximum deflection when the dielectric is replaced by air, 1' when filled with a dielectric whose specific inductive capacity is known to be K', and 1" the distance when filled with the dielectric whose specific inductive capacity is required; we easily see that 2al 2 rl' cot x —cot a i—K' 2 cot- --cote ~ I —K an See also:equation by means of which K can be determined. It was in this way that Drude investigated the specific inductive capacity with varying frequency, and found a falling off in the specific inductive capacity with increase of frequency when the dielectrics contained the radicle OH.

In another method used by him the wires were led through long tanks filled with the liquid whose specific inductive capacity was required; the velocity of propagation of the electric waves along the wires in the tank being the same as the velocity of propagation of an electromagnetic disturbance through the liquid filling the tank, if we find the wave length of the waves along the wires in the tank, due to a vibration of a given frequency, and compare this with the wave lengths corresponding to the same frequency when the wires are surrounded by air, we obtain the velocity of propagation of electromagnetic disturbance through the fluid, and hence the specific inductive capacity of the fluid. § to. Velocity of Propagation of Electromagnetic Effects through Air. —The experiments of Sarasin and De la Rive already described (see § 5) have shown that, as theory requires, the velocity of propagation of electric effects through air is the same as along wires. The same result had been arrived at by J. J. See also:

Thomson, although from the method he used greater See also:differences between the velocities might have escaped detection than was possible by Sarasin and De la Rive's method. The velocity of waves along wires has been directly determined by Blondlot by two different methods. In the first the detector consisted of two parallel plates about 6 cm. in diameter placed a fraction of a millimetre apart, and forming a condenser whose capacity C was determined in electromagnetic measure by Maxwell's method. The plates were connected by a rectangular circuit whose self-induction L was calculated from the dimensions of the rectangle and the size of the wire. The time of vibration T is equal to 27r2/ (LC). (The wave length corresponding to this time is long compared with the length of the circuit, so that the use of this See also:formula is legitimate.) This detector is placed between two parallel wires, and the waves produced by the exciter are reflected from a movable bridge.

When this bridge is placed just beyond the detector vigorous sparks are observed, but as the bridge is pushed away a place is reached where the sparks disappear; this place is distance 2/a from the detector, when X is the wave length of the vibration given out by the detector. The sparks again disappear when the distance of the bridge from the detector is 3X/4. Thus by measuring the distance between two consecutive positions of the bridge at which the sparks disappear X can be determined, A and v, the velocity of propagation, is equal to X/T. As the means of a number of experiments Blondlot found v to be 3.02 X 1010 cm./sec., which, within the errors of experiment, is equal to 3 X 1010 cm./sec., the velocity of light. A second method used by Blondlot, and one which does not involve the calculation of the period, is as follows:—A and A' (fig. to) are two equal Leyden jars coated inside and outside with tin-foil. A' The outer coatings form two See also:

separate rings a, al ; a', a'1, and the inner coatings are connected with the poles of the induction coil by means of the metal pieces b, b'. The sharply pointed conductors p and p', the points of which are about z mm. apart, are connected with the rings of the tin-foil a and a', and two long copper wires peal, 1029 cm. long, connect these points with the other rings a1, al'. The rings aa', alai', are connected by wet strings so as to charge up the jars. When a spark passes between b and b', a spark at once passes between pp', and this is followed by another spark when the waves travelling by the paths al cp, a'lc'p' reach p and p'. The time between the passage of these sparks, which is the time taken by the waves to travel 1029 cm., was observed by means of a rotating mirror, and the velocity measured in 15 experiments varied between 2.92 X 1010 and 3.03 X 1010 cm./sec., thus agreeing well with that deduced by the preceding method. Other determinations of the velocity of electromagnetic propagation have been made by Lodge and Glazebrook, and by Saunders. On Maxwell's electromagnetic theory the velocity of propagation of electromagnetic disturbances should equal the velocity of light, and also the ratio of the electromagnetic unit of See also:electricity to the electrostatic unit.

A large number of determinations of this ratio have been made: Observer. Date. Ratio to" X. Klemencic 1884 3.019 cm./sec. Himstedt . 1888 3.009 cm./sec. See also:

Rowland . 1889 2.9815 cm./sec. See also:Rosa 1889 2.9993 cm./sec. J. J. Thomson and Searle 1890 2.9955 CM.

/sec. See also:

Webster. 1891 2.987 cm./sec. Pellat . 1891 3.009 cm./sec. See also:Abraham . 1892 2.992 cm./sec. Hurmuzescu 1895 3.002 CM. /sec. Rosa 1908 2.9963 cm./sec. The mean of these determinations is 3.001 X 1010 cm./sec., while the mean of the last five determinations of the velocity of light in air is given by Himstedt as 3.002X1010 cm./sec. From these experiments we conclude that the velocity of propagation of an electromagnetic disturbance is equal to the velocity of light, and to the velocity required by Maxwell's theory.

In experimenting with electromagnetic waves it is in general more difficult to measure the period of the oscillations than their wave length. Rutherford used a method by which the period of the vibration can easily be determined; it is based upon the theory of the See also:

distribution of alternating currents in two circuits ACB, See also:ADB in parallel. If A and B are respectively the maximum currents in the circuits ACB, ADB, then A IS2+(N—M)2p2 - See also:R2+(LM)2p2 when R and S are the resistances, L and N the coefficients of self-induction of the circuits ACB, ADB respectively, M the coefficient of mutual induction between the circuits, and p the frequency of the currents. Rutherford detectors were placed in the two circuits, and the circuits adjusted until they showed that A=B; when this is the case R2—S2 p2 _ N2—L2—2M(N—L) If we make one of the circuits, ADB, consist of a short length of a high liquid resistance, so that S is large and N small, and the other circuit ACB of a low metallic resistance bent to have considerable self-induction, the preceding equation becomes approximately p=S/L, so that when S and L are known p is readily determined. (J. J.

End of Article: ELECTRIC WAVES

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