POSITION AND FORM OF ARMATURE.

In one of Du Moncel’s papers on electromagnets[1] you will also find a discussion on armatures, and the best forms for working in different positions.  Among other things in Du Moncel you will find this paradox:  that whereas using a horseshoe magnet with fat poles, and a flat piece of soft iron for armature, it sticks on far tighter when put on edgeways; on the other hand, if you are going to work at a distance, across air, the attraction is far greater when it is set flatways.  I explained the advantage of narrowing the surfaces of contact by the law of traction, B squared, coming in.  Why should we have for action at a distance the greater advantage from placing the armature flatway to the poles?  It is simply that you thereby reduce the reluctance offered by the air gap to the flow of the magnetic lines.  Du Moncel also tried the difference between round armatures and flat ones, and found that a cylindrical armature was only attracted about half as strongly as a prismatic armature having the same surface when at the same distance.  Let us examine this fact in the light of the magnetic circuit.  The poles are flat.  You have at a certain distance away a round armature; there is a certain distance between its nearest side and the polar surfaces.  If you have at the same distance away a flat armature having the same surface, and, therefore, about the same tendency to leak, why do you get a greater pull in this case than in that?  I think it is clear that if they are at the same distance away, giving the same range of motion, there is a greater magnetic reluctance in the case of the round armature, although there is the same periphery, because, though the nearest part of the surface is at the prescribed distance, the rest of the under surface is farther away; so that the gain found in substituting an armature with a flat surface is a gain resulting from the diminution in the resistance offered by the air gap.

[Footnote 1:  “La Lumiere Electrique,” vol. ii.]

POLE PIECES ON HORSESHOE MAGNETS.

Another of Du Moncel’s researches[2] relates to the effect of polar projections or shoes—­movable pole pieces, if you like—­upon a horseshoe electromagnet.  The core of this magnet was of round iron 4 centimeters in diameter, and the parallel limbs were 10 centimeters long and 6 centimeters apart.  The shoes consisted of two flat pieces of iron slotted out at one end, so that they could be slid along over the poles and brought nearer together.  The attraction exerted on a flat armature across air gaps 2 millimeters thick was measured by counterpoising.  Exciting this electromagnet with a certain battery, it was found that the attraction was greatest when the shoes were pushed to about 15 millimeters, or about one-quarter of the interpolar distance, apart.  The numbers were as follows: