Page:On a Self-recovering Coherer and the Study of the Cohering Action of different Metals.djvu/1

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In working with coherers, made of iron or steel, some special difficulties are encountered in the warm and damp climate of Bengal. The surface of the metals soon gets oxidised, and this is attended with variation of sensitiveness of coherer. The sensitiveness, it is true, does not altogether disappear, but it undergoes a considerable diminution. The presence of excessive moisture in the atmosphere introduces another difficulty. Substances to be experimented on become more or less opaque by absorption of water vapour. As fairly dry weather lasts in Bengal only for a few weeks in winter, the difficulties alluded to above are for the greater part of the year serious drawbacks in carrying out delicate experiments. To avoid as far as possible the partial loss of sensibility of the receiver due to oxidation, I tried to use metals less oxidisable than iron for the construction of the coherer. In my earlier experiments I derived considerable advantage by coating the steel spirals with deposits of various metals. Finding that the sensitiveness depends on the coating metal and not on the substratum, I used in my later experiments fine silver threads wound in narrow spirals. They were then coated with cobalt in an electrolytic bath. The coating of cobalt was at first apt to strip off, but with a suitable modification of the electrolyte and a proper adjustment of the current, a deposit was obtained which was very coherent. The contact surface of cobalt was found to be highly sensitive to electric radiation, and the surface is not liable to such chemical changes as are experienced in the case of steel.

I next proceeded to make a systematic study of the action of different metals as regards their cohering properties. In a previous paper I enumerated the conditions which are favourable for making the coherer sensitive to electric radiation. These are the proper adjustment of the E.M.F. and pressure of contact suitable for each particular receiver. The E.M.F. is adjusted by a potentiometer slide. For very delicate adjustments of pressure I used in some of the following experiments an U-tube filled with mercury, with a plunger in one of the limbs; various substances were adjusted to touch barely the mercury in the other limb. A thin rod, acting as a plunger, was made to dip to a more or less extent in the mercury by a slide arrangement. In this way the mercury displaced was made to make contact with the