Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/293

 Rh does not very much interfere with the movement. I place yellow glass in front, and the movement is scarcely diminished at all. Very deep-colored glass, you see, diminishes it a little more. Blue and green glass make it go a little slower, but still do not diminish the speed one-half. I now place a screen of water in front: the instrument moves with diminished velocity, rotating with about one-fourth its original speed.

I now move the candle a little distance off, so as to make the instrument move slower, and bring a flask of boiling water close to it. See what happens. The luminous index no longer moves steadily, but in jerks. Each disk appears to come up to the boiling water with difficulty, and to hurry past it. More and more sluggishly do they move past, until now one has failed to get by, and the luminous beam, after oscillating to and fro a few times, comes to rest. I now gradually bring the candle near. The index shows no movement. Nearer still. There is now a commencement of motion, as if the radiometer were trying to push past the resistance offered by the hot water; but it is not until I have brought the candle to within a few inches of the glass globe that rotation is recommenced. On these pith radiometers the action of dark heat is to repel the black and white surfaces almost equally, and this repulsion is so energetic as to overcome the rotation caused by the candle, and to stop the instrument.

With a radiometer constructed of a good conductor of heat, such as metal, the action of dark heat is different. Here is one made of silvered copper, polished on one side and lampblacked on the other. I have set it moving with a candle slightly the normal way. Here is a glass shade heated so that it feels decidedly warm to the hand. I cover the radiometer with it, and the rotation first stops, and then recommences the reverse way. On removing the hot shade the reverse movement ceases and normal rotation recommences.

If, however, I place a hot glass shade over a pith radiometer, the arms at once revolve the normal way, as if I had exposed the instrument to light. The diametrically opposite behavior of a pith and a metal instrument when exposed to the dark heat radiated from a hot glass shade is very striking. The explanation of the action is not easy, but it depends on the fact that the metal is one of the best conductors of heat, while pith is one of the worst.

One more experiment with this metallic radiometer. I heat it strongly with a spirit-lamp, and the arms spin round rapidly. Now