On Laboratory Arts Part 24

This source of residual charge was carefully guarded against by Rowland and Nichols (Phil. Mag. 1881) in their work on quartz, and is referred to by M. Bouty, who adduces some experiments to show that his own results are not vitiated by it. On the other hand, M. Bouty shows that a small rise in temperature enormously affects the state of a mica surface, and that the surface gets changed in such a way as to become very fairly conducting at 300 C. Also anybody can easily try for himself whether exposing a mica condenser plate which has been examined in presence of phosphorus pentoxide to ordinary air for five minutes will not enormously increase the residual charge, as has always been the case in the writer's experience, and if so, it is open to him to suggest some cause other than surface creeping as an explanation.

M. Bouty, using less perfectly dried mica, did not get so good a result as to smallness of residual charge as the one above quoted.

The chief use of mica for laboratory purposes depends on the ease with which it can be split, and also upon the fact that it may be considerably crumpled and bent without breaking. It therefore makes an excellent dielectric in so far as convenience of construction is concerned in the preparation of condensers, and lends itself freely to the construction of insulating washers or separators of any kind. Its success as a fair insulator at moderate temperatures has led to its use in resistance thermometers, where it appears to have given satisfaction up to, at all events, 400 C.

It is worth a note that according to Werner Siemens, who had immense experience (Wied. Ann. vol. clix.), soapstone is the only reliable insulator at a red heat, but, no doubt, a good deal depends on the particular specimen investigated.

-- 107. Use of Mica in Condensers.

If good results are desired it is essential to select the mica very carefully. Pieces appreciably stained,--particularly if the stain is not uniformly distributed,--cracked pieces, and pieces tending to flake off in patches should be rejected. The best samples of mica that have come under the writer's observation are those sheets sold for the purpose of giving to silver photographic prints that hideous glazed surface which some years ago was so popular.

Sheets of mica about 0.1 to 0.2 mm. thick form good serviceable condenser plates, and will certainly stand a pressure of 300 volts, and most likely a good deal more. The general practice in England seems to have been to build up condensers of alternate sheets of varnished or paraffined-mica and tin-foil.

This practice is open to several objections. In the first place, the capacity of a condenser made in this way varies with the pressure binding the plates together. In the second place, the amount of mica and tin-foil required is often excessive in consequence of the imperfect contact of these substances. Again, the inevitable air film between the mica and tin-foil renders condensers so made unsuitable for use with alternating currents, owing to the heating set up through air discharges, and which is generally, though often (if not always) wrongly, attributed to dielectric hysteresis.

These imperfections are to a great extent got over by M. Carpentier's method of construction, which is, however, rather more costly both in material and labour. On the other hand, wonderful capacities are obtained with quite small amounts of mica. M. Bouty mentions a condenser of one microfarad capacity weighing 1500 grms. and contained in a square box measuring 12 centimetres on the side, and about 3 centimetres thick.

The relation between the capacity and surface of doubly-coated plates is in electro-static units:

Capacity = (sp. ind. capacity X area of one surface)/(4pi X thickness)

This may be reduced to electro-magnetic units by dividing by 9x10^20, and to microfarads by further multiplying by 10^15.

M. Carpentier begins, of course, by having his mica scrupulously clean and well selected. It is then silvered by one of the silvering processes (-- 65) on both sides, for which purpose the sheets may be suspended in a paraffined wood rack, so as to lie horizontally in the silvering solution, a s.p.a.ce of about half an inch being allowed between the sheets. The silvering being finished, the sheets are dipped along two parallel edges in 75 per cent nitric acid. With regard to the third and fourth edges of the sheet, the silver is removed on one side only, using a spun gla.s.s brush; if we agree to call the two surfaces of the mica A and B respectively, and the two edges in question C and D, then the silver is removed from the A side along edge C, and from the B side along edge D. The silvered part is shown shaded in Fig. 84. By this arrangement the silver and mica plates may be built up together so as to form the same mutual arrangement of contacts as in an ordinary mica tin-foil condenser.

Fig. 84.

It need hardly be said that the sheets require very complete washing after treatment with nitric acid, followed by a varnishing of the edges as already described in the case of gla.s.s, and baking at a temperature of 140 C. in air free from flame gases, till the sh.e.l.lac begins to emit its characteristic odour and is absolutely hard when cold.

The plates are then built up so as to connect the sheets which require to be connected, and to insulate the other set. General contact is, if necessary, secured by means of a little silver leaf looped across from plate to plate--a part of the construction which requires particular attention and clean hands, for it is by no means so easy to make an unimpeachable contact as might at first appear.

The condenser, having been built up, may be clamped solid and placed in its case; the capacity will not depend appreciably on the tightness of the clamp screws--a great feature of the construction.

Such a condenser will not give its best results unless absolutely dry.

I have kept one very conveniently in a vacuum desiccator over phosphorus pentoxide, but if of any size, the condenser deserves a box to itself, and this must be air-tight and provided with a drying reagent, so arranged that it can be removed through a manhole of some sort.

Contact to the bra.s.s-work on the lid may be made by pressing spring contacts tightly down upon the ends of the silver foils and carrying the connections through the lid. This also serves to secure the condenser in position.

-- 108. Micanite.

This substance, though probably comparing somewhat unfavourably with the insulators already enumerated, and being subject to the uncertainties of manufacture, has during the last few years achieved a considerable success in American electrical engineering construction.

It is composed of sc.r.a.p mica and sh.e.l.lac varnish worked under pressure to the desired shape, and may be obtained in sheets, plates, and rods, or in any of the forms for which a die happens to have been constructed.

Of course, in special cases it would be worth while to prepare a die, and then the attainable forms would be limited by moulding considerations only. The writer's experience is very limited in this matter, but Dr. Kennelly, with whom he communicated on the subject, was good enough to reply in favour of micanite for engineering work.

-- 109. Celluloid.

This material is composed of nitrocellulose and camphor.

It has fair insulating properties, and may be obtained in a variety of forms, but has now been generally abandoned for electrical work on account of its inflammability.

-- 110. Paper.

Pure white filter paper, perfectly dry, is probably a very fair insulator; the misfortune is that in practice it cannot be kept dry.

Under the most favourable circ.u.mstances its specific resistance may approach 1024 E.M. units. It must therefore be considered rather as a partial conductor than as an insulator. The only case of the use of dry paper as an insulator in machine construction which has come under the writer's notice is in building up the commutators of the small motors which used to drive the Edison phonographs.

Its advantages in this connection are to be traced to the fact that a commutator so built up is durable and keeps a clean surface. Of course, the use of paper as an insulator for telephone wires is well known, but its success in this direction depends less upon its insulating properties than upon the fact that it can be arranged in such a way as to allow of the wires being partially air insulated, an arrangement tending to reduce the electrostatic capacity of the wire system.

At one time it was the custom of instrument makers to employ ordinary printed paper in the shape of leaves torn from books or the folios of old ledgers to form the dielectric of the condensers used in connection with the contact breakers of induction coils. This practice has nothing but economy to recommend it, for cases often occur in which the paper, by gradual absorption of moisture from the air, comes to insulate so badly that it practically short circuits the spark gap, and so stops the action of the coil. Three separate cases have come within the writer's experience.

Some measurements of the resistance of paper have been made by F.

Uppenborn (Centralblatt fuer Electrotechnik, Vol. xi. p. 215, 1889). There is an abstract of the paper also in Wiedemann's Beiblaetter (1889, vol. xiii. P. 711). Uppenborn examined the samples of paper under normal conditions as to moisture and obtained the following results:-

Description of Paper

I

Pressure Intensity

II.

Specific Resistance corresponding to pressures as in Column I. Ohms.

III

Pressure Intensity.

IV.

Specific Resistance corresponding to Column III. Ohms.

Common cardboard 2.3 mm. thick

0.05 kilo. per 6000 sq. mm.

4.85 x 1015

20 kg. per 6000 sq. mm.

4.7 x 1014

Gray paper, 0.26 mm. thick

0.05 kilo. per 5000 sq. mm.

3.1 x 10^15

20 kg. per 5000 sq. mm.

8 x 1014