Abstract
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Royal Society, March 22.—“On Stratified Discharges. Stratified and Unstratified Forms of the Jar-Discharge,”by William Spottiswoode, M.A., F.R.S. It is well known that if a Ley den jar be discharged through a vacuum tube, the discharge generally takes the form of an unbroken column of light, extending from the point of the positive terminal to the hilt of the negative, i"e., to the extreme negative end of the tube; and that it shows no trace of either negative glow or intervening dark space. On the other hand, I have found, by experiments with a large Leyden battery, that if a tube having one terminal connected with the negatively charged coating of the battery and the other held beyond striking distance from the positively charged coating, the discharge in the tube will show a separation of the positive from the negative part by a dark intervening space. Under suitable circumstances of exhaustion it will also show strise, in the same manner as when the discharge is effected directly with a Holtz machine, having the conductors either closed or open beyond striking distance (see Roy. Soc. Proceedings, vol. xxiii. p. 460). Again, I have found, with the same battery, that if the tube bejconnected—otherwise as before—and held at a distance less than at first, but a little greater than striking distance, a stratified discharge much more brilliant and more like that produced by a coil will be exhibited. The latter form of discharge appears to the unassisted eye as an unbroken column of light, but with a negative glow and dark space. A revolving mirror, however, resolves the column into a regular array of strise, having a rapid proper motion towards the positive terminal.
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Societies and Academies . Nature 16, 18–20 (1877). https://doi.org/10.1038/016018b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/016018b0