Page:EB1911 - Volume 09.djvu/224

 and capacity are large so that the frequency comes within the limits of the frequency of audible notes, the system gives out a musical 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 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 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 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 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 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 therefore 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 main wires were cut between PL and QM. Blondlot used a modification of this apparatus better suited for the 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 maximum deflection. Then if is the wave length of the waves, is the wave length of one of the free vibrations of the system HLMJ; hence if C is the capacity of the condenser at the end in electrostatic measure we have

where l is the distance of 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 C0 + KC1 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, l′ when filled with a dielectric whose specific inductive capacity is known to be K′, and l″ the distance when filled with the dielectric whose specific inductive capacity is required, we easily see that—

an 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.

§ 10. 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. Thomson, although from the method he used greater 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 2√(LC). (The wave length corresponding to this time is long compared with the length of the circuit, so that the use of this 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/ from the detector, when 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 3/4. Thus by measuring the distance between two consecutive positions of the bridge at which the sparks disappear can be determined,