Abstract
IN this work Mr. Willoughby Smith gives an account of some curious and interesting experiments on magneto-electric induction as revealed by the Bell telephone. In one of these experiments an intermittent current was sent through a flat spiral coil of wire 36 inches in diameter containing 1220 yards of wire in 800 turns. When an ordinary Bell telephone, unconnected with the circuit, is held within a few feet of this, spiral sounds are heard in it, even if the coil of the telephone be removed, leaving only the iron tympanum and the magnet. Mr. Smith however appears to regard this effect as something not explainable on the ordinary laws of electrical action, and he applies a new term, “specific inductive resistance,” to the power of a medium to stop such inductive action. He thus introduces a confusion between two conditions in the case. That such induction should be propagated depends upon the coefficient of magnetic induction, and also depends upon the damping of induction by the setting up of currents in an interposed sheet of metal. Both these causes are perfectly well known. It is a pity that an able experimenter commits himself to crude ideas of this kind. There are several good plates of figures added.
Induction.
By Willoughby Smith. 17 pp. (London: Hayman Brothers and Lilly, 1882.)
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[Book Reviews]. Nature 26, 267 (1882). https://doi.org/10.1038/026267b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/026267b0