Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 17.djvu/836

816 light of the moon, and Werner Siemens discovered that, in certain extremely sensitive varieties of selenium, heat and light produced opposite effects. In Siemens's experiments special arrangements were made for the purpose of reducing the resistance of the selenium employed. Two fine platinum wires were coiled together in the shape of a double flat spiral in the zigzag shape, and were laid upon a plate of mica so that the disks did not touch one another. A drop of melted selenium was then placed upon the platinum-wire arrangement, and a second sheet of mica was pressed upon the selenium, so as to cause it to spread out and fill the spaces between the wires. Each cell was about the size of a silver dime. The selenium-cells were then placed in a paraffine bath, and exposed for some' hours to a temperature of 210° Cent., after which they were allowed to cool with extreme slowness. The results obtained with these cells were very extraordinary; in some cases the resistance of the cells when exposed to light was only one fifteenth of their resistance in the dark.

Without dwelling further upon the researches of others, I may say that the chief information concerning the effect of light upon the conductivity of selenium will be found under the names of Willoughby Smith, Lieutenant Sale, Draper and Moss, Professor W. G. Adams, Lord Rosse, Day, Sabini, Dr. Werner Siemens, and Dr. C. W. Siemens. All observations by these various authors had been made by means of galvanometers; but it occurred to me that the telephone, from its extreme sensitiveness to electrical influences, might be substituted with advantage. Upon consideration of the subject, however, I saw that the experiments could not be conducted in the ordinary way, for the following reason: The law of audibility of the telephone is precisely analogous to the law of electric induction. No effect is produced during the passage of a continuous and steady current. It is only at the moment of change from a stronger to a weaker state, or vice versa, that any audible effect is produced, and the amount of effect is exactly proportional to the amount of variation in the current. It was, therefore, evident that the telephone could only respond to the effect produced in selenium at the moment of change from light to darkness, or vice versa; and that it would be advisable to intermit the light with great rapidity, so as to produce a succession of changes in the conductivity of the selenium, corresponding in frequency to musical vibrations within the limits of the sense of hearing. For I had often noticed that currents of electricity, so feeble as to produce scarcely any audible effects from a telephone when the circuit was simply opened or closed, caused very perceptible musical sounds when the circuit was rapidly, interrupted, and that the higher the pitch of sound the more audible was the effect. I was much struck by the idea of producing sound by the action of light in this way. Upon further consideration it appeared to me that all the audible effects obtained from varieties of electricity could also be produced by variations of light acting upon selenium. I