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IX.—Observations on some Spark-Gap Phenomena

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2014

John McWhan
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
George A. Clark
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
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Extract

In a recent note to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Dr Dawson Turner remarks on a peculiarity observed by him in the behaviour of an inductioncoil spark-gap when a piece of mica, glass, sulphur, ebonite, etc., is placed between the terminals, near or against the + one. The surprising variety of the phenomena exhibited on the interposition of a solid dielectric plate between the two poles of such a coil (or between the poles of an influence machine) may make, in view of Dr Turner's note, the following observations of some interest. The observations in question were made during the course of an inquiry into the causes of the Lullin effect (according to which a thin dielectric plate interposed between two sparking terminals not opposite to one another is, as a general rule, perforated at the negative pole), and the apparatus employed consisted essentially of the details shown in fig. i., viz. of a motor-driven influence machine whose terminals were connected through a battery of Leyden jars in cascade to a specially designed spark-gap which allowed of any three-dimensional motion of the electrodes being accurately measured, and of any desired type or form of electrode (spherical, conical, disc type, etc.) being inserted at will.

Type
Proceedings
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1910

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References

page 219 note * Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin., 1908–9, vol. xxix. p. 414.

page 219 note † Landolt, Börnstein, and Meyerhoffer, Physikalische-Chemische Tabellen, p. 778.

page 220 note * Kiessling, and Walter, , Annalen d. Physik (4), Bd. xi., 1903, p. 586.Google Scholar

page 221 note * Cf. Faraday, Experimental Researches in Electricity, series xii.

page 222 note * Wiedemann Annalen, Bd. viii., p. 476, “Ueber die Bewegung von Platten zwischen den Elektroden einer Holtz'schen Maschine.”

page 223 note * Doubrava also disposed of the hydro-electric theory by using as the plate a thin sheet of some dielectric or conductor, enclosed in an envelope of material of the opposite hydroelectric sign, and showing that the effect remained unaltered (Wiedemann Annalen, loc. cit.).

page 225 note * Pogg. Ann., Bd. cxxviii. p. 589.

page 228 note * Lehmann, O., Annalen d. Physik (4), Bd. vii., 1902, p. 1.Google Scholar