A HISTORY OF ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM Burndy Library Publication No. 27 A HISTORY OF ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM Herbert W. Meyer Foreword by Bern Dibner DÉVELOPPEMENT ÉCONOMIQUE ET ÉTUDE DES MARCHÉS CENTRE DE DOCUMENTATION BURNDY LIBRARY Norwalk, Connecticut 1972 This book was designed by The MIT Press Design Department. It was set in IBM Composer Bodoni by Science Press printed on Mohawk Neotext Offset by The Colonial Press Inc. and bound by The Colonial Press Inc. in the United States of America. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. ISBN 0 262 13070 X (hardcover) Library of Congress catalog card number: 70-137473 FOREWORD BY BERN DIBNER xi PREFACE xv 1 EARLY DISCOVERIES 1 Archeology and Paleontology; Magnetite and the Lodestone; Thales of Miletus; Ancient and Medieval Records, The Magnetic Compas; William Gilbert. 2 ELECTRICAL MACHINES AND EXPERIMENTS WITH STATIC ELECTRICITY 11 Otto von Guericke; Other Expçriments With Static Electricity; Stephen Gray and the Transmission of Electricity; Du Fay’s Experi- ments and His Discovery of Two Kinds of Electricity; Improvements in Electrical Machines; The Leyden Jar; The Speed of Electricity; Sir William Watson’s ‘Theories; Miscellaneous Discoveries; Benjamin Franklin’s Experiments; Atmospheric Electricity; Experiments in Europe with Atmospheric Electricity; Electrical Induction, Electro- scopes; Other Discoveries in the Eighteenth Century 3 VOLTAIC ELECTRICITY, ELECTROCHEMISTRY, AND ELECTROMAGNETISM 34 Galvani's Frog Experiments; Volta and the Voltaic Pile; Evolution of the Battery and Discoveries with Electric Currents; Electromag- netism; Ampère; Arago, Biot and Savart; Faraday's Rotating Con- ductor and Magnet and Barlow's Wheel; Sturgeon's Electromagnet, Galvanometers; Ampère's and Ohm's Laws. 4 FARADAY AND HENRY 52 Faraday's Formative Years; Faraday Appointed to the Royal Insti- tution; Electromagnetic Induction; Other Contributions by Faraday; Joseph Henry; Henry's First Excursions into Science; Henry Pro- poses tbe Electromagnetic Telegraph; Electromagnetic Induction; Self-Induction; Marriage and Professorship at Princeton; Electrical Oscillations and Electromagnetic Waves; Other Researches; The Smithsonian Institution. vi Contents 5 DIRECT-CURRENT DYNAMOS AND MOTORS 71 Pixii’s Machine; Nollet’s Machines; Dynamos; Electric Motors. 6 IMPROVEMENTS IN BATTERIES AND ELECTROSTATIC MACHINES 77 The Daniel1 Cell; The Grove Cell; the Leclanché Cell; Other Bat- teries; Storage Batteries; Electrostatic Induction Machines. 7 ELECTRICAL INSTRUMENTS, LAWS, AND DEFINITIONS OF UNITS 85 Tangent Galvanometer; D'Arsonval Galvanometer; Wheatstone Bridge; Electrical and Magnetic Laws; Electrical and Magnetic Units. 8 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH 95 Early Electromagnetic Telegraphs; Samuel F. B. Morse; Demonstra- tion of the First Morse Telegraph; Partnership with Alfred Vail; U.S. Government Interested in Telegraph; Demonstrations of the Im- proved Morse Telegraph; Patent Applications; Submarine Cable; Congress Appropriates $30,000 for an Experimental Line; Construc- tion of the Line; “What Hath God Wrought!“; Commercial Opera- tion of the Telegraph; Construction of New Telegraph Lines; West- ern Union; Printing Telegraphs; Relays; Duplex and Multiplex Systems; Railway Telegraphs; The First Transcontinental Telegraph Line; Electrical Manufacturing. 9 THE ATLANTIC CABLE 115 Early Submarine Cables; Newfoundland Cable; The Atlantic Cable; Cable Company Is Organized; Contracts for the Manufacture of Cable; The Cable Fleet; Loading and Testing the Cable; Laying the Cable; Project Postponed until the Following Year; Second Attempt; Cable Is Spliced in Mid-Ocean; Insulation Breaks Down; The Second Cable; Most of the Cable Is Laid Successfully Before It Breaks; The Third Cable; The Siphon Recorder. Contents vii 10 THE TELEPHONE 131 Bourseul and Reis; Alexander Graham Bell; The Bell Family Moves to Canada; Classes in Boston; The Harmonie Telegraph; Boston Uni- versity and George Sanders; Thomas A. Watson; The Phonautograph and thc Reis Tclcphone; Meeting with Joseph Henry; Agreement with Sanders and Hubbard; Bell's Great Discovery; Despair: New Quarters; Tclcphone Patent Granted; Thc Telephone at thc Centen- nial Exposition; Tcsting thc Telephone; Western Union Refuses to Buy thc Telephone; Bell Is Married; Organization of Telephone Companies; Infringement by the Western Union Telegraph Com- pany; Bell Patent Upheld; Transmitters; Theodore N. Vail; Evolu- tion of the Bell Companies; The Dial Telephone; Bell Laboratories and Western Electric Company; Othcr Telephone Systems. 11 ELECTRIC LIGHTING 152 Arc Lampa; Arc Lamp Mechanisms; Carbons; Manufacturers; Street Liihting; Enclosed Are Lamps; Flaming Arcs; Incandescent Elcctric Lights; Edison's Incandescent Lamp; Edison Electric Light Com- pany; Menlo Park; The Search for Better Filament Materials; Im- provements in Lamp Seals and in Dynamos; First Commercial Instal- lations; Pearl Street, the First Central Station for Incandescent Ligbting; Schencctady Works; Foreign Incandescent Liiht Installa- tions; Improved Lamps; Othcr Types of Lamps; Metal Filament Lamps; Tube Lighting; Fluorescent Lamps; Lamp Efficiencies; Special-Purpose Lamps. 12 ALTERNATING CURRENTS 177 The Transformer; Induction Coils; Gaulard and Gibbs; Westinghouse Alternating-Current System; Alternating-Current Generators; Fre- quencies; AC-DC Conversion; Alternating-Current Motors; Niagara Falls Development; Transmission Lines; Frequency and Voltage Standards. 13 ELECTRIC TRACTION 190 Public Transportation; Rails and Railways; Street Railways; Electric Propulsion; Electrification of Street Railways; Thc Carbon Brush; viii Contents Rapid Conversion from Horsecars to Electric Propulsion; Suburban and Main Line Electrification; The Decline of Electric Street Rail- ways. 14 ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES, RADIO, FACSIMILE, AND TELEVISION 198 A Century of Progress; Hertz Discovers Electromagnetic Waves; Sig- naling without Wires; Guglielmo Marconi; First Radio Patent; Tuned Circuits; Continuous Waves; Detectors; The Edison Effect; The Fleming Valve; De Forest Audion; Amplification; Armstrong’s Oscillator Tube; The Alexanderson High-Frequency Generator; Amateur Radio and Radio Broadcasting; Regulation of Radio; Fed- eral Communications Commission; Frequency Allocations; Radio Receivers; Facsimile Transmission; Commercial Facsimile; Photo- electric Devices; Pictures by Cable; Television; The Scanning Disk and Mechanical Television; The Iconoscope; Improvements on the Iconoscope; Transmission by Radio Waves; Regulation of Television and Channel Allocations. 15 THE CROOKES TUBE, XRAYS, RADIOACTIVITY, STRUCTURE OF THE ATOM, ACCELERATORS AND ATOMIC RESEARCH 224 The Crookes Tube; Vacuum Tubes before Crookes; Sir William Crookes and His Experiments; Later Developments in Cathode Rays; X Rays; Radioactivity; Scattering of Electrons; Photoelectric Effect; Planck’s Constant; Photoelectrons and Einstein’s Equation; Hydrogen Spectra; Structure of the Atom; Heavier Atoms, Elliptical Orbits, and Spin; Theoretical and Experimental Physics of the 1920s; Other Subatomic Particles; The Electron Microscope; Radia- tion Detectors; Accelerators and Atomic Research. 16 MICROWAVES, RADAR, RADIO RELAY, COAXIAL CABLE, COMPUTERS 253 Microwaves; Radar; Early British Developments and Installations; American Wartime Research and Development; New Oscillators and Other Tubes; Types of Radar; Other Uses of Radar; Telephone Radio Relay; Frequency Band Allocations; Coaxial Cable; Com- Contents ix puters; Computer Development; Digital and Analog Computer~; Electronic Computers; Memory Systems; Input and Output Sys- tems; Numeration. 17 PLASMAS, MASERS, LASERS, FUEL CELLS, PIEZOELECTRIC CRYSTALS, TRANSISTORS 275 Plasmas; Masers and Lasers; Gas Lasers; Applications; Electrolytic and Electrochemical Phenomena; Piezoelectricity; Solid State De- vices; Semiconductors; Transistors; The Transistor Industry. 18 ATOMIC ENERGY, GOVERNMENT RESEARCH, NUCLEAR FUSION 289 Atomic Energy; Nuclear Research for the United States Govern- ment; Los Alamos Laboratory and the Atomic Bomb; Atomic Energy Commission; Nuclear Power Plants; Nuclear Fusion; Whither. BIBLIOGRAPHY 299 INDEX 307 [...]... changes of short duration IJndoubtedly the voyages of Columbus and Vasço da Gama were greatly aided by its use 8 Chapter One With the invention or rediscovery of the compass came a greatly increased interest in magnetism Many believed that magnetism was a cure for various diseases, and others claimed to be able to use compass needles, separated by great distances, as a means of telegraphic communication... The bal1 was rotated by means of a crank at the end of the shaft In later models the shaft was driven at higher speed by means of a belt that passed over a larger driving wheel and over a smaller pulley on the shaft carrying the sulfur bah The rotating bal1 was excited by friction through the application of the dry hands or a cloth This machine produced far greater quantities of electricity than had... Lucretius, the poet and author of De Rerum Natura, noted the ability of the lodestone to attract several iron rings, onc adhering to the other, and marveled at the peculiar behavior of iron filings in a brass bowl when a magnet was moved ahout heneath,it As the gxat Roman Empire declined, the culture of Greece and Rome gradually vanished; Learning almost disappeared and for centuries was confined largely to...FOREWORD Of the many ages of man—the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, etc.-that preceded the 1800s, and that led one into the other, none was as rewarding to mankind as the electrical age We now stand in awe of the space age, andin fear we face the nuclear age From electricity, however, has b e e n drawn a n ever growing abundance o f light, power, warmth, intelligence, and medical aid-all beneficent,... work of such men as Ampère, Coulomb, Biot and Savart, Gauss, Weber, and Ohm Maxwell, an ardent admirer of Faraday’s great genius, interpreted Faraday’s discoveries mathematically and contributed his own mathematical findings, but credit for some of Maxwell’s discoveries must be shared with Helmholtz, whose versatility in science has rarely been equaled After Maxwell and Helmholtz followed a period of. .. been available and made possible new and interesting experiments Von Guericke noted the attraction and repulsion of feathers, the crackling noises and sparks, and the odor that pernreated the air when the machine was excited He found also that the electrification of the bal1 produced a tingling sensation when any part of the body approached it There is reason to believe that van Guericke noted that electricity. .. widespread and fairly abundant minerals of the earth is a very useful ore of iron called magnetite, which has the composition Fe3O4 It is a crystalline minera& very dark in color, having a metallic luster, and a specific gravity equal to about fivesevenths of that of iron Unlike any of the other iron ores it is magnetic, and this property gives it its name There are occasional pieces of magnetite, as found... they finally reached a distance of 765 feet In still other experiments they discovered that hair, rosin, and glass made suitable supports for their packthread line On the same day, which was July 2, 1729, Gray and Wheeler electrified larger surfaces such as a map and a tablecloth In August of the same year, Gray found that he could produce charges at the end of an insulated packthread line merely by... planted on tbe shores of the Mediterranean a Aegean seas, amorrg whicb was Ionia in Asia Minor Miletus was a thriving seaport in lonia, in and out of which sailed ships from all of the ports of the Mediterranean Its inhabitants, through their trade with other coun- tries, became well-to-do and acquired much of the culture basin Philoso f other civilizations o f the Mediterranean ophy, astronomy, mathcmatics,... such a difficult mission Admittedly, the acquisition of electricity as an instrument of power and control in the inventory of man's abilities was no small addition One can therefore stop and inquire about the circumstances that brought this acquisition about and review the events and personalities whose labors revealed the characteristics of a force unknown throughout the earlier millenia of work and . Electromag- netism; Ampère; Arago, Biot and Savart; Faraday's Rotating Con- ductor and Magnet and Barlow's Wheel; Sturgeon's Electromagnet, Galvanometers;. Electromagnet, Galvanometers; Ampère's and Ohm's Laws. 4 FARADAY AND HENRY 52 Faraday's Formative Years; Faraday Appointed to the Royal Insti- tution; Electromagnetic