Hertzian Wave Wireless TelegraphyFleming, J. A. (John Ambrose), Sir
Science
Hertzian Wave Wireless Telegraphy
Fleming, J. A. (John Ambrose), Sir
Electric waves; Telegraph, Wireless
Professor R. A. Fessenden has also made some interesting observations
on the effect of using compressed air round spark gaps. He found that
if a certain voltage between metal surfaces would yield a spark four
inches in length, at the ordinary pressure of the air, if the spark
balls were enclosed in a cylinder, the air round them compressed at
50lb. per square inch, the spark length for the same potential
difference of the balls was only one quarter of an inch, or
one-sixteenth of its former value.
The writer has also made experiments with an apparatus designed to
study the effect of compressed air round the spark gap. The
experimental arrangements are as follows: A ten-inch induction coil
has one of its terminals connected to the internal coating of a
battery of Leyden jars. The external coating is connected through the
primary coil of an oscillation transformer with the other secondary
terminal of the coil, and these secondary terminals are also connected
to a spark gap consisting of two brass balls enclosed in a glass
vessel into which air can be forced by a pump, the air pressure being
measured by a gauge. The balls in the glass vessel are set at a
distance of about three millimetres apart. The secondary circuit of
the oscillation transformer is connected to another pair of spark
balls, the distance of which can be varied.
Suppose we begin with the air in the glass vessel containing the balls
connected to the secondary terminals of the induction coil, which may
be called the secondary balls, at atmospheric pressure, and create
oscillatory discharges in the primary coil of the oscillation
transformer, we have a spark between the balls, which may be called
the tertiary balls, connected to the secondary terminals of the
oscillation transformer. If the secondary balls are placed, say, three
millimetres apart, the air in the glass vessel enclosing them being at
the ordinary atmospheric pressure, then with one particular
arrangement of jars used, a spark twenty-five or twenty-six
millimetres long between the tertiary balls will take place. Suppose,
then, we increase the pressure of the air round the secondary balls,
pumping it by degrees to 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50lb. per square inch
above the atmospheric pressure. We find that the spark between the
tertiary balls will gradually leap a greater and greater distance, and
when the pressure of the air is 50lb. per square inch, we can obtain a
fifty-millimetre spark between the tertiary balls, whereas when the
air in the glass vessel is at atmospheric pressure, we can only obtain
a spark between the tertiary balls of half that length.
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