Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 63.djvu/207

Rh secondary coil. It therefore does not assist us in the direction required, viz., in prolonging the duration of the secondary electromotive force to enable larger capacities to be charged.

The important point in connection with the working of a coil used for charging a condenser is not the length of spark which the coil can give alone, but the length of spark which can be obtained between small balls attached to the secondary terminals, when these terminals are also connected to the two surfaces of the condenser. Thus, a coil may give a ten-inch spark if worked alone, but on a capacity of one thirtieth of a microfarad it may not be able to give more than a five-millimeter spark. Hence in describing the value of a coil for wireless telegraph purposes, it is not the least use to state the length of spark which the coil will give between the pointed conductors in air, but we must know the spark length which it will give between brass balls, say 1 cm. in diameter, connected to the secondary terminals, when these terminals are also short-circuited by a stated capacity, the spark not exceeding that length at which it becomes non-oscillatory.

A good way of describing the value of an induction coil for wireless telegraph purposes is to state the length of oscillatory spark which can be produced between balls one centimeter in diameter connected to the secondary terminals, when these balls are short-circuited by a condenser having a capacity say of one hundredth of a microfarad, and also one tenth of a microfarad.

If a hammer or motor interrupter is employed with the coil, then a primary condenser must be connected across the points between which the primary circuit is broken. This condenser generally consists of sheets of tin-foil alternated with sheets of paraffin paper, and for a ten-inch coil, may have a capacity of about 0.4 or 0.5 of a microfarad.

Lord Rayleigh discovered that if the interruption of the primary circuit is sufficiently sudden and complete, as when the primary circuit is severed by a bullet from a gun, the primary condenser can be removed and yet the sparks obtained from the secondary circuit are actually longer than those obtained with the condenser and the ordinary break,

In the use, however, of the coil for Hertzian wave telegraphy, with all interrupters except the Wehnelt break, a condenser of suitable capacity must be joined across the break points.

Turning in the next place to the primary key, or signaling interrupter, it is necessary to be able to control the torrent of sparks between