Scientific American Supplement, No. 492, June 6, 1885 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 129 pages of information about Scientific American Supplement, No. 492, June 6, 1885.

Scientific American Supplement, No. 492, June 6, 1885 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 129 pages of information about Scientific American Supplement, No. 492, June 6, 1885.

5. Dual state of selenium.—­My cells, when first made seem to have two states or conditions.  In one, their resistance is very low, in the other it is high.  When in the low state they are usually not very sensitive, in any respect.  I therefore raise the resistance, by sending an intermittent or an alternating current though the cells, and in their new condition they at once become extremely sensitive to light, currents, and other influences.  In some cases they drop to the low state again, and require to be again brought up, until, after a number of such treatments, they remain in the sensitive state.  Occasionally a cell will persist in remaining in the insensitive state.  The before mentioned treatment raises it up for a moment, but, before the bridge can be balanced and the resistance measured, it again drops into the low or insensitive state.  Some cells have been thus stimulated into the high or sensitive state repeatedly, and every means used to make them stay there, but without avail; and they have had to be laid aside as intractable.

In the earlier stages of my investigations, before the discovery of this dual state and the method of changing a cell from the insensitive to the sensitive condition, hundreds of cells were made, finished, and tested, only to be then ruthlessly destroyed and melted over, under the impression that they were worthless.  Now, I consider nothing worthless, but expect sooner or later to make every cell useful for one purpose or another.

The most singular part of this phenomenon is the wide difference in the resistance of the cells in the two states.  In the low state, it may be a few ohms, or even a few hundredths of an ohm.  In the high state, it is the normal working resistance of the cell, usually between 5,000 and 200,000 ohms, but is often up among the millions.  The spectacle of a little selenium being stimulated, by a few interruptions of the current through it, into changing its resistance from a fraction of an ohm up to a million or several millions of ohms, and repeatedly and instantly changing back and forth, up and down, through such a wide range, we might almost say changing from zero to infinity, and the reverse, instantly, is one which suggests some very far-reaching inquiries to the electrician and the physicist.  What is the nature of electrical conductivity or resistance, and how is it so greatly and so suddenly changed?

6. Radio-electric current generators.—­My cells can be so treated that will generate a current by simple exposure to light or heat.  The light, for instance, passes through the gold and acts upon its junction with the selenium, developing an electromotive force which results in a current proceeding from the metal back, through the external circuit, to the gold in front, thus forming a photo-electric dry pile or battery.  It should preferably be protected from overheating, by an alum water cell or other well known means.

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Scientific American Supplement, No. 492, June 6, 1885 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.