Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 60.djvu/312

286 to know the number. The coil so constructed constituted a small induction coil or transformer, with a closed air-core circuit, but which when immersed in a liquid, by the penetration of the liquid into the interior of the primary coil, became changed into a closed circuit transformer, with a liquid core. The transformer so designed was capable of being placed underneath liquid oxygen contained in a large vacuum vessel, and when so placed formed a transformer of the closed circuit type, with a core of liquid oxygen. The coefficient of mutual induction of these two circuits, primary and secondary, is therefore altered by immersing the transformer in liquid oxygen, but the whole of the induction produced in the interior of the primary coil is always linked with the whole of the turns of the secondary coil, and the only form-change that can be made is a small change in the mean perimeter of the primary turns due to the contraction of the .coil as a whole. In experiments with this transformer the transformer was always lifted out of the liquid oxygen into the cold gaseous oxygen lying on the surface of the liquid oxygen, and which is at the same temperature. On lifting out the transformer, the liquid oxygen drains away from the interior of the primary coil, and is replaced by gaseous oxygen of very nearly the same temperature.

The vacuum vessel used had a depth of 60 cm. outside and 53 cm. inside, and an internal diameter of 1 era. It held 2 litres of liquid oxygen when full; but, as a matter of fact, 4 or 5 litres of liquid oxygen were poured into it in the course of the experiment.

Another induction coil was then constructed, consisting of a long cylindrical coil wound over the four layers of wire, and a secondary circuit was constructed to this coil, consisting of a certain number of turns wound round the outside of the primary coil, and a small adjusting secondary coil, consisting of a thin rod of wood wound over with very open spirals of wire. The secondary turns on the outside of the primary coil were placed in series with the turns of the thin adjusting coil, and the whole formed a secondary circuit, partly outside and partly inside the long primary cylindrical coil, the coefficient of mutual induction of this primary and secondary coil being capable of being altered by very small amounts by sliding into or out of the primary coil the small secondary coil. This last induction coil, which will be spoken of as the balancing coil, was connected up to the small transformer, as just described, as follows :—

The primary coil of the small transformer was connected in series with the primary coil of the balancing induction coil, and the two terminals of the series were connected through a reversing switch and ammeter with an electric supply circuit, so that a current of known strength could be reversed through the circuit, consisting of the two primary coils in series. The two secondary coils, the one on