﻿of Electricity on Iron Wires, 



127 



between the plates of the secondary and the disks on the 

 ends of the primary wires was so great that vigorous oscil- 

 lations were produced along the secondary wires whatever 

 their length might ho, and several systems of waves could 

 be detected which seemed to give experimental grounds for 

 believing that the wave-system sent out from the Hertzian 

 vibrator was very complex. 



The capacity of the vibrator is increased by the presence of 

 these secondary disks so neat to the vibrator-plates, so that 

 the wave-length found under these conditions is not that 

 due to the simple Hertzian vibrator but that due to a very 

 complex oscillating system with somewdiat obscure internal 

 reactions. Especially is this true when the wires are bridged 

 as in the Lecher arrangement. The latter calls attention to the 

 change in the sound of the primary spark when the secondary 

 wires are bridged by a conductor. There is a very marked 

 difference in the spark w r hen the secondary circuit is removed 

 entirely : the spark then loses much in body and explosive 

 character. The secondary circuit under these conditions 

 exerts apparently a strong reaction upon the primary. 



It seemed desirable to devise some form of secondary 

 depending more directly upon the principle of electrical 

 resonance, the use of which would not increase the capacity 

 of the vibrator, and wdiose reaction upon it wxmld be a 

 minimum. This was done by omitting the secondary disks 

 and using simply a long wire as shown in fig. 1. 



Fig. 1. 



859 ClU 



P 



S 



The secondary circuit consists of the long rectangle PQRS, 



2G2 



