Experimental Researches in Electricity Part 31

1050. Another effect is observed at the same time, which has long been known to philosophers, namely, that a bright electric spark occurs at the place of disjunction.

1051. A brief account of these results, with some of a corresponding character which I had observed in using long wires, was published in the Philosophical Magazine for 1834[A]; and I added to them some observations on their nature. Further investigations led me to perceive the inaccuracy of my first notions, and ended in identifying these effects with the phenomena of induction which I had been fortunate enough to develop in the First Series of these Experimental Researches (1.-59.)[B]. Notwithstanding this ident.i.ty, the extension and the results supply, lead me to believe that they will be found worthy of the attention of the Royal Society.

[A] Vol. v. pp. 349, 444.

[B] Philosophical Transactions, 1832, p. 126.

1052. The _electromotor_ used consisted of a cylinder of zinc introduced between the two parts of a double cylinder of copper, and preserved from metallic contact in the usual way by corks. The zinc cylinder was eight inches high and four inches in diameter. Both it and the copper cylinder were supplied with stiff wires, surmounted by cups containing mercury; and it was at these cups that the contacts of wires, helices, or electro-magnets, used to complete the circuit, were made or broken. These cups I will call G and E throughout the rest of this paper (1079.).

1053. Certain _helices_ were constructed, some of which it will be necessary to describe. A pasteboard tube had four copper wires, one twenty-fourth of an inch in thickness, wound round it, each forming a helix in the same direction from end to end: the convolutions of each wire were separated by string, and the superposed helices prevented from touching by intervening calico. The lengths of the wires forming the helices were 48, 49.5, 48, and 45 feet. The first and third wires were united together so as to form one consistent helix of 96 feet in length; and the second and fourth wires were similarly united to form a second helix, closely interwoven with the first, and 94.5 feet in length. These helices may be distinguished by the numbers i and ii. They were carefully examined by a powerful current of electricity and a galvanometer, and found to have no communication with each other.

1054. Another helix was constructed upon a similar pasteboard tube, two lengths of the same copper wire being used, each forty-six feet long. These were united into one consistent helix of ninety-two feet, which therefore was nearly equal in value to either of the former helices, but was not in close inductive a.s.sociation with them. It may be distinguished by the number iii.

1055. A fourth helix was constructed of very thick copper wire, being one-fifth of an inch in diameter; the length of wire used was seventy-nine feet, independent of the straight terminal portions.

1056. The princ.i.p.al _electro-magnet_ employed consisted of a cylindrical bar of soft iron twenty-five inches long, and one inch and three quarters in diameter, bent into a ring, so that the ends nearly touched, and surrounded by three coils of thick copper wire, the similar ends of which were fastened together; each of these terminations was soldered to a copper rod, serving as a conducting continuation of the wire. Hence any electric current sent through the rods was divided in the helices surrounding the ring, into three parts, all of which, however, moved in the same direction.

The three wires may therefore be considered as representing one wire, of thrice the thickness of the wire really used.

1057. Other electro-magnets could be made at pleasure by introducing a soft iron rod into any of the helices described (1053, &c.).

1058. The _galvanometer_ which I had occasion to use was rough in its construction, having but one magnetic needle, and not at all delicate in its indications.

1059. The effects to be considered _depend on the conductor_ employed to complete the communication between the zinc and copper plates of the electromotor; and I shall have to consider this conductor under four different forms: as the helix of an electro-magnet (1056); as an ordinary helix (1053, &c.); as a _long_ extended wire, having its course such that the parts can exert little or no mutual influence; and as a _short_ wire.

In all cases the conductor was of copper.

1060. The peculiar effects are best shown by the _electro-magnet_ (1056.).

When it was used to complete the communication at the electromotor, there was no sensible spark on _making_ contact, but on _breaking_ contact there was a very large and bright spark, with considerable combustion of the mercury. Then, again, with respect to the shock: if the hands were moistened in salt and water, and good contact between them and the wires retained, no shock could be felt upon _making_ contact at the electromotor, but a powerful one on _breaking_ contact.

1061. When the _helix_ i or iii (1053, &c.) was used as the connecting conductor, there was also a good spark on breaking contact, but none (sensibly) on making contact. On trying to obtain the shock from these helices, I could not succeed at first. By joining the similar ends of i and ii so as to make the two helices equivalent to one helix, having wire of double thickness, I could just obtain the sensation. Using the helix of thick wire (1055.) the shock was distinctly obtained. On placing the tongue between two plates of silver connected by wires with the parts which the hands had heretofore touched (1064.), there was a powerful shock on _breaking_ contact, but none on _making_ contact.

1062. The power of producing these phenomena exists therefore in the simple helix, as in the electro-magnet, although by no means in the same high degree.

1063. On putting a bar of soft iron into the helix, it became an electro-magnet (1057.), and its power was instantly and greatly raised. On putting a bar of copper into the helix, no change was produced, the action being that of the helix alone. The two helices i and ii, made into one helix of twofold length of wire, produced a greater effect than either i or ii alone.

1064. On descending from the helix to the mere _long wire_, the following effects were obtained, A copper wire, 0.18 of an inch in diameter, and 132 feet in length, was laid out upon the floor of the laboratory, and used as the connecting conductor (1059.); it gave no sensible spark on making contact, but produced a bright one on breaking contact, yet not so bright as that from the helix (1061.) On endeavouring to obtain the electric shock at the moment contact was broken, I could not succeed so as to make it pa.s.s through the hands; but by using two silver plates fastened by small wires to the extremity of the princ.i.p.al wire used, and introducing the tongue between those plates, I succeeded in obtaining powerful shocks upon the tongue and gums, and could easily convulse a flounder, an eel, or a frog.

None of these effects could be obtained directly from the electromotor, i.e. when the tongue, frog, or fish was in a similar, and therefore comparative manner, interposed in the course of the communication between the zinc and copper plates, separated everywhere else by the acid used to excite the combination, or by air. The bright spark and the shock, produced only on breaking contact, are therefore effects of the same kind as those produced in a higher degree by the helix, and in a still higher degree by the electro-magnet.

1065. In order to compare an extended wire with a helix, the helix i, containing ninety-six feet, and ninety-six feet of the same-sized wire lying on the floor of the laboratory, were used alternately as conductors: the former gave a much brighter spark at the moment of disjunction than the latter. Again, twenty-eight feet of copper wire were made up into a helix, and being used gave a good spark on disjunction at the electromotor; being then suddenly pulled out and again employed, it gave a much smaller spark than before, although nothing but its spiral arrangement had been changed.

1066. As the superiority of a helix over a wire is important to the philosophy of the effect, I took particular pains to ascertain the fact with certainty. A wire of copper sixty-seven feet long was bent in the middle so as to form a double termination which could be communicated with the electromotor; one of the halves of this wire was made into a helix and the other remained in its extended condition. When these were used alternately as the connecting wire, the helix half gave by much the strongest spark. It even gave a stronger spark than when it and the extended wire were used conjointly as a double conductor.

1067. When a _short wire_ is used, _all_ these effects disappear. If it be only two or three inches long, a spark can scarcely be perceived on breaking the junction. If it be ten or twelve inches long and moderately thick, a small spark may be more easily obtained. As the length is increased, the spark becomes proportionately brighter, until from extreme length the resistance offered by the metal as a conductor begins to interfere with the princ.i.p.al result.

1068. The effect of elongation was well shown thus: 114 feet of copper wire, one-eighteenth of an inch in diameter, were extended on the floor and used as a conductor; it remained cold, but gave a bright spark on breaking contact. Being crossed so that the two terminations were in contact near the extremities, it was again used as a conductor, only twelve inches now being included in the circuit: the wire became very hot from the greater quant.i.ty of electricity pa.s.sing through it, and yet the spark on breaking contact was scarcely visible. The experiment was repeated with a wire one-ninth of an inch in diameter and thirty-six feet long with the same results.

1069. That the effects, and also the action, in all these forms of the experiment are identical, is evident from the manner in which the former can be gradually raised from that produced by the shortest wire to that of the most powerful electro-magnet: and this capability of examining what will happen by the most powerful apparatus, and then experimenting for the same results, or reasoning from them, with the weaker arrangements, is of great advantage in making out the true principles of the phenomena.

1070. The action is evidently dependent upon the wire which serves as a conductor; for it varies as that wire varies in its length or arrangement.

The shortest wire may be considered as exhibiting the full effect of spark or shock which the electromotor can produce by its own direct power; all the additional force which the arrangements described can excite being due to some affection of the current, either permanent or momentary, in the wire itself. That it is a _momentary_ effect, produced only at the instant of breaking contact, will be fully proved (1089. 1100.).

1071. No change takes place in the quant.i.ty or intensity of the current during the time the latter is _continued_, from the moment after contact is made, up to that previous to disunion, except what depends upon the increased obstruction offered to the pa.s.sage of the electricity by a long wire as compared to a short wire. To ascertain this point with regard to _quant.i.ty_, the helix i (1053.) and the galvanometer (1055.) were both made parts of the metallic circuit used to connect the plates of a small electromotor, and the deflection at the galvanometer was observed; then a soft iron core was put into the helix, and as soon as the momentary effect was over, and the needle had become stationary, it was again observed, and found to stand exactly at the same division as before. Thus the quant.i.ty pa.s.sing through the wire when the current was continued was the same either with or without the soft iron, although the peculiar effects occurring at the moment of disjunction were very different in degree under such variation of circ.u.mstances.

1072. That the quality of _intensity_ belonging to the constant current did not vary with the circ.u.mstances favouring the peculiar results under consideration, so as to yield an explanation of those results, was ascertained in the following manner. The current excited by an electromotor was pa.s.sed through short wires, and its intensity tried by subjecting different substances to its electrolyzing power (912. 966. &c.); it was then pa.s.sed through the wires of the powerful electro-magnet (1056.), and again examined with respect to its intensity by the same means and found unchanged. Again, the constancy of the _quant.i.ty_ pa.s.sed in the above experiment (1071.) adds further proof that the intensity could not have varied; for had it been increased upon the introduction of the soft iron, there is every reason to believe that the quant.i.ty pa.s.sed in a given time would also have increased.

1073. The fact is, that under many variations of the experiments, the permanent current _loses_ in force as the effects upon breaking contact become _exalted_. This is abundantly evident in the comparative experiments with long and short wires (1068.); and is still more strikingly shown by the following variation. Solder an inch or two in length of fine platina wire (about one-hundredth of an inch in diameter) on to one end of the long communicating wire, and also a similar length of the same platina wire on to one end of the short communication; then, in comparing the effects of these two communications, make and break contact between the platina terminations and the mercury of the cup G or E (1079.). When the short wire is used, the platina will be _ignited by the constant current_, because of the quant.i.ty of electricity, but the spark on breaking contact will be hardly visible; on using the longer communicating wire, which by obstructing will diminish the current, the platina will remain cold whilst the current pa.s.ses, but give a bright spark at the moment it ceases: thus the strange result is obtained of a diminished spark and shock from the strong current, and increased effects from the weak one. Hence the spark and shock at the moment of disjunction, although resulting from great intensity and quant.i.ty, of the current _at that moment_, are no direct indicators or measurers of the intensity or quant.i.ty of the constant current previously pa.s.sing, and by which they are ultimately produced.

1074. It is highly important in using the spark as an indication, by its relative brightness, of these effects, to bear in mind certain circ.u.mstances connected with its production and appearance (958.). An ordinary electric spark is understood to be the bright appearance of electricity pa.s.sing suddenly through an interval of air, or other badly conducting matter. A voltaic spark is sometimes of the same nature, but, generally, is due to the ignition and even combustion of a minute portion of a good conductor; and that is especially the case when the electromotor consists of but one or few pairs of plates. This can be very well observed if either or both of the metallic surfaces intended to touch be solid and pointed. The moment they come in contact the current pa.s.ses; it heats, ignites, and even burns the touching points, and the appearance is as if the spark pa.s.sed on making contact, whereas it is only a case of ignition by the current, contact being previously made, and is perfectly a.n.a.logous to the ignition of a fine platina wire connecting the extremities of a voltaic battery.

1075. When mercury const.i.tutes one or both of the surfaces used, the brightness of the spark is greatly increased. But as this effect is due to the action on, and probable combustion of, the metal, such sparks must only be compared with other sparks also taken from mercurial surfaces, and not with such as may be taken, for instance, between surfaces of platina or gold, for then the appearances are far less bright, though the same quant.i.ty of electricity be pa.s.sed. It is not at all unlikely that the commonly occurring circ.u.mstance of combustion may affect even the duration of the light; and that sparks taken between mercury, copper, or other combustible bodies, will continue for a period sensibly longer than those pa.s.sing between platina or gold.

1076. When the end of a short clean copper wire, attached to one plate of an electromotor, is brought down carefully upon a surface of mercury connected with the other plate, a spark, almost continuous, can be obtained. This I refer to a succession of effects of the following nature: first, contact,--then ignition of the touching points,--recession of the mercury from the mechanical results of the heat produced at the place of contact, and the electro-magnetic condition of the parts at the moment[A], --breaking of the contact and the production of the peculiar intense effect dependent thereon,--renewal of the contact by the returning surface of the undulating mercury,--and then a repet.i.tion of the same series of effects, and that with such rapidity as to present the appearance of a continued discharge. If a long wire or an electro-magnet be used as the connecting conductor instead of a short wire, a similar appearance may be produced by tapping the vessel containing the mercury and making it vibrate; but the sparks do not usually follow each other so rapidly as to produce an apparently continuous spark, because of the time required, when the long wire or electro-magnet is used, both for the full development of the current (1101. 1106.) and for its complete cessation.

[A] Quarterly Journal of Science, vol. xii, p. 420.

1077. Returning to the phenomena in question, the first thought that arises in the mind is, that the electricity circulates with something like _momentum or inertia_ in the wire, and that thus a long wire produces effects at the instant the current is stopped, which a short wire cannot produce. Such an explanation is, however, at once set aside by the fact, that the same length of wire produces the effects in very different degrees, according as it is simply extended, or made into a helix, or forms the circuit of an electro-magnet (1069.). The experiments to be adduced (1089.) will still more strikingly show that the idea of momentum cannot apply.

1078. The bright spark at the electromotor, and the shock in the arms, appeared evidently to be due to _one_ current in the long wire, divided into two parts by the double channel afforded through the body and through the electromotor; for that the spark was evolved at the place of disjunction with the electromotor, not by any direct action of the latter, but by a force immediately exerted in the wire of communication, seemed to be without doubt (1070.). It followed, therefore, that by using a better conductor in place of the human body, the _whole_ of this extra current might be made to pa.s.s at that place; and thus be separated from that which the electromotor could produce by its immediate action, and its _direction_ be examined apart from any interference of the original and originating current. This was found to be true; for on connecting the ends of the princ.i.p.al wire together by a cross wire two or three feet in length, applied just where the hands had felt the shock, the whole of the extra current pa.s.sed by the new channel, and then no better spark than one producible by a short wire was obtained on disjunction at the electromotor.

1079. The _current_ thus separated was examined by galvanometers and decomposing apparatus introduced into the course of this wire. I will always speak of it as the current in the cross wire or wires, so that no mistake, as to its place or origin, may occur. In the wood-cut, Z and C represent the zinc and copper plates of the electromotor; G and E the cups of mercury where contact is made or broken (1052.); A and B the terminations of D, the long wire, the helix or the electro-magnet, used to complete the circuit; N and P are the cross wires, which can either be brought into contact at _x_, or else have a galvanometer (1058.) or an electrolyzing apparatus (312. 316.) interposed there.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The production of the _shock_ from the current in the cross wire, whether D was a long extended wire, or a helix, or an electro-magnet, has been already described (1060. 1061. 1064.).

1080. The _spark_ of the cross-wire current could be produced at _x_ in the following manner: D was made an electro-magnet; the metallic extremities at _x_ were held close together, or rubbed lightly against each other, whilst contact was broken at G or E. When the communication was perfect at _x_, little or no spark appeared at G or E. When the condition of vicinity at _x_ was favourable for the result required, a bright spark would pa.s.s there at the moment of disjunction, _none_ occurring at G and E: this spark was the luminous pa.s.sage of the extra current through the cross-wires. When there was no contact or pa.s.sage of current at _x_, then the spark appeared at G or E, the extra current forcing its way through the electromotor itself. The same results were obtained by the use of the helix or the extended wire at D in place of the electro-magnet.

1081. On introducing a fine platina wire at _x_, and employing the electro-magnet at D, no visible effects occurred as long as contact was continued; but on breaking contact at G or E, the fine wire was instantly ignited and fused. A longer or thicker wire could be so adjusted at _x_ as to show ignition, without fusion, every time the contact was broken at G or E.

1082. It is rather difficult to obtain this effect with helices or wires, and for very simple reasons: with the helices i, ii, or iii, there was such r.e.t.a.r.dation of the electric current, from the length of wire used, that a full inch of platina wire one-fiftieth of an inch in diameter could be retained ignited at the cross-wires during the _continuance of contact_, by the portion of electricity pa.s.sing through it. Hence it was impossible to distinguish the particular effects at the moments of making or breaking contact from this constant effect. On using the thick wire helix (1055.), the same results ensued.

1083. Proceeding upon the known fact that electric currents of great quant.i.ty but low intensity, though able to ignite thick wires, cannot produce that effect upon thin ones, I used a very fine platina wire at _x_, reducing its diameter until a spark appeared at G or E, when contact was broken there. A quarter of an inch of such wire might be introduced at _x_ without being ignited by the _continuance_ of contact at G or E; but when contact was broken at either place, this wire became red-hot; proving, by this method, the production of the induced current at that moment.

1084. _Chemical decomposition_ was next effected by the cross-wire current, an electro-magnet being used at D, and a decomposing apparatus, with solution of iodide of pota.s.sium in paper (1079.), employed at _x_. The conducting power of the connecting system A B D was sufficient to carry all the primary current, and consequently no chemical action took place at _x_ during the _continuance_ of contact at G and E; but when contact was broken, there was instantly decomposition at _x_. The iodine appeared against the wire N, and not against the wire P; thus demonstrating that the current through the cross-wires, when contact was broken, was in the _reverse direction_ to that marked by the arrow, or that which the electromotor would have sent through it.

1085. In this experiment a bright spark occurs at the place of disjunction, indicating that only a small part of the extra current pa.s.sed the apparatus at _x_, because of the small conducting power of the latter.

1086. I found it difficult to obtain the chemical effects with the simple helices and wires, in consequence of the diminished inductive power of these arrangements, and because of the pa.s.sage of a strong constant current at _x_ whenever a very active electromotor was used (1082).

1087. The most instructive set of results was obtained, however, when the _galvanometer_ was introduced at _x_. Using an electro-magnet at D, and continuing contact, a current was then indicated by the deflection, proceeding from P to N, in the direction of the arrow; the cross-wire serving to carry one part of the electricity excited by the electromotor, and that part of the arrangement marked A B D, the other and far greater part, as indicated by the arrows. The magnetic needle was then forced back, by pins applied upon opposite sides of its two extremities, to its natural position when uninfluenced by a current; after which, contact being _broken_ at G or E, it was deflected strongly in the opposite direction; thus showing, in accordance with the chemical effects (1084), that the extra current followed a course in the cross-wires _contrary_ to that indicated by the arrow, i. e. contrary to the one produced by the direct action of the electromotor[A].

[A] It was ascertained experimentally, that if a strong current was pa.s.sed through the galvanometer only, and the needle restrained in one direction as above in its natural position, when the current was stopped, no vibration of the needle in the opposite direction took place.

1088. With the _helix_ only (1061.), these effects could scarcely be observed, in consequence of the smaller inductive force of this arrangement, the opposed action from induction in the galvanometer wire itself, the mechanical condition and tension of the needle from the effect of blocking (1087.) whilst the current due to continuance of contact was pa.s.sing round it; and because of other causes. With the _extended wire_ (1064.) all these circ.u.mstances had still greater influence, and therefore allowed less chance of success.

1089. These experiments, establishing as they did, by the quant.i.ty, intensity, and even direction, a distinction between the primary or generating current and the extra current, led me to conclude that the latter was identical with the induced current described (6. 26. 74.) in the First Series of these Researches; and this opinion I was soon able to bring to proof, and at the same times obtained not the partial (1078.) but entire separation of one current from the other.