From the very smallest of beginnings the science of electricity arose. The simple experiment of rubbing a piece of amber and watching light bodies dance up to it, had provided an amusement for centuries before its importance was revealed.
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A 230-page book describing the current body of knowledge about electricity in 1922. Unfortunately, quite a number of the illustrations didn't make it into the scan.
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Previews available in: English
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1922Showing 2 featured editions. View all 2 editions?
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Excerpts
added by Katharine Hadow.
One of the earliest known effects of an electric current is the heating effect. By means of a few cells, a fine piece of iron wire may be raised to white heat. The wire will then burn in the air; but if a material such as platinum be used, the wire becomes brightly incandescent, and if the heating be pushed too far, the wire will fuse. It was natural that as soon as the electric current could be produced upon an economical scale, its employment for artificial illumination should be attempted. The early attempts, however, were not very successful, and it was many years before electricity could compete successfully with gas for illuminating purposes. The last twenty years have seen a continual war between the two, sometimes one appearing to lead, and sometimes the other. There is little doubt that where lighting is to be performed on a large scale, as out of doors, the electric arc has established a permanent precedence over gas; but for indoor lighting the matter is not so certain....The fact that electricity does not involve the using up of the oxygen of the atmosphere, with production of objectionable and destructive fumes as does gas, gives it a permanent advantage.
Page 74-75,
added by Katharine Hadow.
There is one type of electrolytic action which should be mentioned as it is of considerable service. An aluminium plate immersed in an electrolyte , of which there are many, will only allow current to flow in one direction, that is from the electrolyte to the aluminium plate. The aluminium plate can therefore act as a kathode, but refuses to act as anode. ....if one electrode be of aluminium and the other of lead, a cell is obtained which allows the current to flow in one direction only; such an arrangement is called the Nodon valve.
Page 144,
added by Katharine Hadow.
"Imagine a topic too new to be standardized, one in which scholars could choose how to spell their vocabulary. The field was so wide open that people grabbed their information, from people who spelled the negative terminal cathode AND those who spelled it cathode. Everybody stood a chance of making their marks in the field."
A very important step in the detection of electromagnetic waves was made by E. Branly in 1890....Such an arrangement was named coherer by Sir Oliver Lodge....To Sir Ernest Rutherford is due the credit of making an important discovery.
Page 168-170,
added by Katharine Hadow.
"These inventors' names are lost to time, but when this book was published, they were famous for their breakthroughs."
One of the greatest strides made in radio-telegraphy is due to the addition by L. deForest, in 1907, of a third electrode or grid to the Fleming valve, thus converting it into an instrument of far-reaching utility, which has many names. The name triode (three-electrodes) appears to be the one likely to become permanently attached to it, although various forms of the instrument have been called, respectively sadies and amplifying valve.
Page 175,
added by Katharine Hadow.
The proper understanding of the nature of the bodies which constitute the kathode rays we owe chiefly to the work of Sir Joseph J. Thomson.
Page 193,
added by Katharine Hadow.
Radioactivity is a process so widely spread and yet, in its most violent occurrences, so remote from everyday life that probably not one person in a hundred could give the name of the worker to whom our knowledge of radioactive processes is chiefly due.
In 1896 Prof Henri Becquerel, of Paris, was examining salts of the metal uranium...
In 1896 Prof Henri Becquerel, of Paris, was examining salts of the metal uranium...
Page 209,
added by Katharine Hadow.
"Now we know whom to thank for the microwave oven"
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Feedback?August 13, 2020 | Edited by MARC Bot | remove fake subjects |
April 28, 2017 | Edited by Katharine Hadow | description, excerpts |
May 6, 2010 | Edited by EdwardBot | add Accessible book tag |
April 28, 2010 | Edited by Open Library Bot | Linked existing covers to the work. |
December 10, 2009 | Created by WorkBot | add works page |