The Study of Elementary Electricity and Magnetism by Experiment: Containing Two Hundred Experiments Performed with Simple, Home-made ApparatusSt. John, Thomas M. (Thomas Matthew)
Science
The Study of Elementary Electricity and Magnetism by Experiment: Containing Two Hundred Experiments Performed with Simple, Home-made Apparatus
_=125. Discussion of Experiments 61, 62, 63; Insulators.=_ In 61 the
electrification remained at one end of the rod. In 62 and 63 the sparks
showed that all parts of the ebonite were not discharged at the same
time. A substance, like ebonite, which will not allow electrification
to pass from one part of it to another, is called an _insulator_. Silk
and glass are also insulators. Do you now see why a silk thread was
used to make the carbon electroscope?
Why do they fasten telegraph wires to glass insulators?
_=126. Conductors.=_ It has already been stated that water in an
elevated tank has potential energy. We can allow the water to flow
through a conducting pipe to another tank a little lower than the
first, and it will still retain much of the potential energy, but not
all.
Can we conduct from one place to another this peculiar state of things,
this queer form of potential energy which we call electrification? It
is clear, from the last experiments, that in order to do it we need
something besides ebonite, which really acts like a closed stop-cock to
the flow of electrification.
To keep electrification in one place we need an insulator; to get it
from one place to another we need a _conductor_. Insulators are as
important as conductors.
You saw that sparks went to the finger from the ebonite, so we call the
finger a conductor. You have learned that attractions and repulsions
show the presence of electrification. Can we have our charged body in
one place and get attractions or repulsions at some other place?
[Illustration: Fig. 32.]
=EXPERIMENT 64. To study conduction.=
_Apparatus._ Fig. 32; the support (see § 109); a bent hairpin,
H P (No. 39); ebonite sheet, E S; flannel cloth, F C; tin disk,
B F B (No. 40), which is the bottom of the flat-box, F B; the
insulating table, I T (see § 127).
=127. The Insulating Table= consists of a tin box (exactly like
that used for the electrophorus cover), and an ebonite rod
about 1-3/4 in. long. See § 139 for full details about fitting
the rod into the box, etc. The lower end of the short rod fits
into the large hole in one end of the support rod, S R. Arrange
as in Fig. 32. B F B should swing about very easily.
=128. Directions.= (A) Charge E S, then rub it upon I T, as
shown, noting the action of B F B.
_=129. Discussion.=_ Ebonite being an insulator (§ 125), we say that I
T, H P and B F B were _insulated_. You can see that the electrification
must have passed through I T and H P to get to the disk, B F B. H P was
the _conductor_, allowing the disk, also, to become charged. The wood,
S R, is a conductor, and, as it was not insulated from the earth, S R
was neutral. Account for the attraction. (See § 121.)
[Illustration: Fig. 33.]
=EXPERIMENT 65. To study conduction.=
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