Page:A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism - Volume 2.djvu/404

372 Hence, since the time occupied in obtaining a reading of the electrometer is large in comparison with the time during which the discharge through the galvanometer takes place, it is probable that the estimate of the discharge in electrostatic measure is too high, and the value of $$\nu$$, derived from it, is probably also too high.

772.] Two other methods for the determination of $$\nu$$ lead to an expression of its value in terms of the resistance of a given conductor, which, in the electromagnetic system, is also expressed as a velocity.

In Sir William Thomson's form of the experiment, a constant current is made to flow through a wire of great resistance. The electromotive force which urges the current through the wire is measured electrostatically by connecting the extremities of the wire with the electrodes of an absolute electrometer, Arts. 217, 218. The strength of the current in the wire is measured in electromagnetic measure by the deflexion of the suspended coil of an electrodynamometer through which it passes, Art. 725. The resistance of the circuit is known in electromagnetic measure by comparison with a standard coil or Ohm. By multiplying the strength of the current by this resistance we obtain the electromotive force in electromagnetic measure, and from a comparison of this with the electrostatic measure the value of $$\nu$$ is obtained.

This method requires the simultaneous determination of two forces, by means of the electrometer and electrodynamometer respectively, and it is only the ratio of these forces which appears in the result.

773.] Another method, in which these forces, instead of being separately measured, are directly opposed to each other, was employed by the present writer. The ends of the great resistance coil are connected with two parallel disks, one of which is moveable. The same difference of potentials which sends the current through the great resistance, also causes an attraction between these disks. At the same time, an electric current which, in the actual experiment, was distinct from the primary current, is sent through two coils, fastened, one to the back of the fixed disk, and the other to the back of the moveable disk. The current flows in opposite directions through these coils, so that they repel one another. By adjusting the distance of the two disks the attraction is exactly balanced by the repulsion, while at the same time another observer,