Home-made Electrical ApparatusMorgan, Alfred Powell
Science
Home-made Electrical Apparatus
Morgan, Alfred Powell
Electric apparatus and appliances -- Amateurs' manuals
The machine is now all ready for operation. In order for it to operate
satisfactorily it is necessary for it to be warm and dry. It is,
therefore, a very good idea to thoroughly dry the woodwork and give it a
coat of varnish or shellac so that it cannot absorb any moisture. It may
be necessary to start the machine by rubbing a glass rod with a piece of
flannel or silk and then touching the rod to some of the sectors. The
handle of the machine should be turned from left to right, that is, in
such a direction that the front plate revolves in the same direction as
the hands of a clock.
If the machine is in proper working order a stream of small sparks
should flow between the spark balls on the ends of the discharger rods,
provided they are not over a half inch apart, when the crank is turned.
The spark can be intensified and lengthened by fitting the machine with
two small Leyden jars.
*The Leyden Jars* are made from small test tubes three inches long. The
inside of the tube should be coated with tinfoil to within about one
inch from the top. The outside of the tube should be coated in the same
manner for the same distance. The tinfoil can be secured to the glass
with shellac.
The top of the Leyden jars is closed with an ordinary cork. A piece of
heavy brass wire bent into the form of a hook should pass through the
cork and make connection with the tinfoil on the inside of the tube. One
Leyden Jar should be hung over each of the collector rods by means of
the hook. The tinfoil coatings on the outside of the jars should be
connected together by a piece of wire running across from one tube to
the other.
[Illustration: FIG. 12.—Details of the Discharger Rods.]
The machine is now complete and ready for performing a number of very
interesting experiments.
Experiments with Static Electrical Apparatus.
*A Leyden Jar* is a very simple device for accumulating and storing
static electricity. It consists simply of a wide mouthed jar or bottle
coated with tinfoil part way up on both the outside and the inside in
exactly the same manner as the small test tubes used on the static
machine.
Not all glass jars are suitable for making Leyden Jars. The quality of
the glass varies considerably and some will be found far superior to the
rest.
The glass vessels used by chemists and called "beaker glasses" usually
make excellent Leyden Jars.
It is not very difficult to make a good Leyden Jar. After you have
selected the jar or bottle you wish to use, clean and dry it very
thoroughly. Then give the inside a thorough brushing over with shellac.
Cut a strip of tinfoil which is long enough to go all the way around the
inside of the jar and about two-thirds its height. Before the shellac is
thoroughly dry but is still sticky, insert the tinfoil strip carefully
into the jar and press it smoothly against the glass.
[Illustration: FIG. 13.—The Supporting Bar upon which the Collector Rods
are mounted. Made of hard rubber so as to be a perfect Insulator.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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