Experimental Researches in Electricity Part 43

1425. The _brush_ is the next form of disruptive discharge which I shall consider. There are many ways of obtaining it, or rather of exalting its characters; and all these ways ill.u.s.trate the principles upon which it is produced. If an insulated conductor, connected with the positive conductor of an electrical machine, have a metal rod 0.3 of an inch in diameter projecting from it outwards from the machine, and terminating by a rounded end or a small ball, it will generally give good brushes; or, if the machine be not in good action, then many ways of a.s.sisting the formation of the brush can be resorted to; thus, the hand or any _large_ conducting surface may be approached towards the termination to increase inductive force (1374.): or the termination may be smaller and of badly conducting matter, as wood: or sparks may be taken between the prime conductor of the machine and the secondary conductor to which the termination giving brushes belongs: or, which gives to the brushes exceedingly fine characters and great magnitude, the air around the termination may be rarefied more or less, either by heat or the air-pump; the former favourable circ.u.mstances being also continued.

1426. The brush when obtained by a powerful machine on a ball about 0.7 of an inch in diameter, at the end of a long bra.s.s rod attached to the positive prime conductor, had the general appearance as to form represented in fig. 117: a short conical bright part or root appeared at the middle part of the ball projecting directly from it, which, at a little distance from the ball, broke out suddenly into a wide brush of pale ramifications having a quivering motion, and being accompanied at the same time with a low dull chattering sound.

1427. At first the brush seems continuous, but Professor Wheatstone has shown that the whole phenomenon consists of successive intermitting discharges[A]. If the eye be pa.s.sed rapidly, not by a motion of the head, but of the eyeball itself, across the direction of the brush, by first looking steadfastly about 10 or 15 above, and then instantly as much below it, the general brush will be resolved into a number of individual brushes, standing in a row upon the line which the eye pa.s.sed over; each elementary brush being the result of a single discharge, and the s.p.a.ce between them representing both the time during which the eye was pa.s.sing over that s.p.a.ce, and that which elapsed between one discharge and another.

[A] Philosophical Transactions, 1834, p. 586.

1428. The single brushes could easily be separated to eight or ten times their own width, but were not at the same time extended, i.e. they did not become more indefinite in shape, but, on the contrary, less so, each being more distinct in form, ramification, and character, because of its separation from the others, in its effects upon the eye. Each, therefore, was instantaneous in its existence (1436.). Each had the conical root complete (1426.).

1429. On using a smaller ball, the general brush was smaller, and the sound, though weaker, more continuous. On resolving the brush into its elementary parts, as before, these were found to occur at much shorter intervals of time than in the former case, but still the discharge was intermitting.

1430. Employing a wire with a round end, the brush was still smaller, but, as before, separable into successive discharges. The sound, though feebler, was higher in pitch, being a distinct musical note.

1431. The sound is, in fact, due to the recurrence of the noise of each separate discharge, and these, happening at intervals nearly equal under ordinary circ.u.mstances, cause a definite note to be heard, which, rising in pitch with the increased rapidity and regularity of the intermitting discharges, gives a ready and accurate measure of the intervals, and so may be used in any case when the discharge is heard, even though the appearances may not be seen, to determine the element of _time_. So when, by bringing the hand towards a projecting rod or ball, the pitch of the tone produced by a brushy discharge increases, the effect informs us that we have increased the induction (1374.), and by that means increased the rapidity of the alternations of charge and discharge.

1432. By using wires with finer terminations, smaller brushes were obtained, until they could hardly be distinguished as brushes; but as long as _sound_ was heard, the discharge could be ascertained by the eye to be intermitting; and when the sound ceased, the light became _continuous_ as a glow (1359. 1405. 1526-1543.).

1433. To those not accustomed to use the eye in the manner I have described, or, in cases where the recurrence is too quick for any una.s.sisted eye, the beautiful revolving mirror of Professor Wheatstone[A]

will be useful for such developments of condition as those mentioned above.

Another excellent process is to produce the brush or other luminous phenomenon on the end of a rod held in the hand opposite to a charged positive or negative conductor, and then move the rod rapidly from side to side whilst the eye remains still. The successive discharges occur of course in different places, and the state of things before, at, and after a single coruscation or brush can be exceedingly well separated.

[A] Philosophical Transactions, 1834, pp. 581, 585.

1434. The _brush_ is in reality a discharge between a bad or a non-conductor and either a conductor or another non-conductor. Under common circ.u.mstances, the brush is a discharge between a conductor and air, and I conceive it to take place in something like the following manner. When the end of an electrified rod projects into the middle of a room, induction takes place between it and the walls of the room, across the dielectric, air; and the lines of inductive force acc.u.mulate upon the end in greater quant.i.ty than elsewhere, or the particles of air at the end of the rod are more highly polarized than those at any other part of the rod, for the reasons already given (1374.). The particles of air situated in sections across these lines of force are least polarized in the sections towards the walls and most polarized in those nearer to the end of the wires (1369.): thus, it may well happen, that a particle at the end of the wire is at a tension that will immediately terminate in discharge, whilst in those even only a few inches off, the tension is still beneath that point. But suppose the rod to be charged positively, a particle of air A, fig. 118, next it, being polarized, and having of course its negative force directed towards the rod and its positive force outwards; the instant that discharge takes place between the positive force of the particle of the rod opposite the air and the negative force of the particle of air towards the rod, the whole particle of air becomes positively electrified; and when, the next instant, the discharged part of the rod resumes its positive state by conduction from the surface of metal behind, it not only acts on the particles beyond A, by throwing A into a polarized state again, but A itself, because of its charged state, exerts a distinct inductive act towards these further particles, and the tension is consequently so much exalted between A and B, that discharge takes place there also, as well as again between the metal and A.

1435. In addition to this effect, it has been shown, that, the act of discharge having once commenced, the whole operation, like a case of unstable equilibrium, is hastened to a conclusion (1370. 1418.), the rest of the act being facilitated in its occurrence, and other electricity than that which caused the first necessary tension hurrying to the spot. When, therefore, disruptive discharge has once commenced at the root of a brush, the electric force which has been acc.u.mulating in the conductor attached to the rod, finds a more ready discharge there than elsewhere, and will at once follow the course marked out as it were for it, thus leaving the conductor in a partially discharged state, and the air about the end of the wire in a charged condition; and the time necessary for restoring the full charge of the conductor, and the dispersion of the charged air in a greater or smaller degree, by the joint forces of repulsion from the conductor and attraction towards the walls of the room, to which its inductive action is directed, is just that time which forms the interval between brush and brush (1420. 1427. 1431. 1447.).

1436. The words of this description are long, but there is nothing in the act or the forces on which it depends to prevent the discharge being _instantaneous_, as far as we can estimate and measure it. The consideration of _time_ is, however, important in several points of view (1418.), and in reference to disruptive discharge, it seemed from theory far more probable that it might be detected in a brush than in a spark; for in a brush, the particles in the line through which the discharge pa.s.ses are in very different states as to intensity, and the discharge is already complete in its act at the root of the brush, before the particles at the extremity of the ramifications have yet attained their maximum intensity.

1437. I consider _brush_ discharge as probably a successive effect in this way. Discharge begins at the root (1426. 1553.), and, extending itself in succession to all parts of the single brush, continues to go on at the root and the previously formed parts until the whole brush is complete; then, by the fall in intensity and power at the conductor, it ceases at once in all parts, to be renewed, when that power has risen again to a sufficient degree. But in a _spark_, the particles in the line of discharge being, from the circ.u.mstances, nearly alike in their intensity of polarization, suffer discharge so nearly at the same moment as to make the time quite insensible to us.

1438. Mr. Wheatstone has already made experiments which fully ill.u.s.trate this point. He found that the brush generally had a sensible duration, but that with his highest capabilities he could not detect any such effect in the spark[A]. I repeated his experiment on the brush, though with more imperfect means, to ascertain whether I could distinguish a longer duration in the stem or root of the brush than in the extremities, and the appearances were such as to make me think an effect of this kind was produced.

[A] Philosophical Transactions, 1836, pp. 586, 590.

1439. That the discharge breaks into several ramifications, and by them pa.s.ses through portions of air alike, or nearly alike, as to polarization and the degree of tension the particles there have acquired, is a very natural result of the previous state of things, and rather to be expected than that the discharge should continue to go straight out into s.p.a.ce in a single line amongst those particles which, being at a distance from the end of the rod, are in a lower state of tension than those which are near: and whilst we cannot but conclude, that those parts where the branches of a single brush appear, are more favourably circ.u.mstanced for discharge than the darker parts between the ramifications, we may also conclude, that in those parts where the light of concomitant discharge is equal, there the circ.u.mstances are nearly equal also. The single successive brushes are by no means of the same particular shape even when they are observed without displacement of the rod or surrounding objects (1427. 1433.), and the successive discharges may be considered as taking place into the ma.s.s of air around, through different roads at each brush, according as minute circ.u.mstances, such as dust, &c. (1391. 1392.), may have favoured the course by one set of particles rather than another.

1440. Brush discharge does not essentially require any current of the medium in which the brush appears: the current almost always occurs, but is a consequence of the brush, and will be considered hereafter (1562-1610.).

On holding a blunt point positively charged towards uninsulated water, a star or glow appeared on the point, a current of air pa.s.sed from it, and the surface of the water was depressed; but on bringing the point so near that sonorous brushes pa.s.sed, then the current of air instantly ceased, and the surface of the water became level.

1441. The discharge by a brush is not to all the particles of air that are near the electrified conductor from which the brush issues; only those parts where the ramifications pa.s.s are electrified: the air in the central dark parts between them receives no charge, and, in fact, at the time of discharge, has its electric and inductive tension considerably lowered. For consider fig. 128 to represent a single positive brush;--the induction before the discharge is from the end of the rod outwards, in diverging lines towards the distant conductors, as the walls of the room, &c., and a particle at _a_ has polarity of a certain degree of tension, and tends with a certain force to become charged; but at the moment of discharge, the air in the ramifications _b_ and _d_, acquiring also a positive state, opposes its influence to that of the positive conductor on _a_, and the tension of the particle at _a_ is therefore diminished rather than increased. The charged particles at _b_ and _d_ are now inductive bodies, but their lines of inductive action are still outwards towards the walls of the room; the direction of the polarity and the tendency of other particles to charge from these, being governed by, or in conformity with, these lines of force.

1442. The particles that are charged are probably very highly charged, but, the medium being a non-conductor, they cannot communicate that state to their neighbours. They travel, therefore, under the influence of the repulsive and attractive forces, from the charged conductor towards the nearest uninsulated conductor, or the nearest body in a different state to themselves, just as charged particles of dust would travel, and are then discharged; each particle acting, in its course, as a centre of inductive force upon any bodies near which it may come. The travelling of these charged particles when they are numerous, causes wind and currents, but these will come into consideration under _carrying discharge_ (1319. 1562.

&c.).

1443. When air is said to be electrified, and it frequently a.s.sumes this state near electrical machines, it consists, according to my view, of a mixture of electrified and unelectrified particles, the latter being in very large proportion to the former. When we gather electricity from air, by a flame or by wires, it is either by the actual discharge of these particles, or by effects dependent on their inductive action, a case of either kind being produceable at pleasure. That the law of equality between the two forces or forms of force in inductive action is as strictly preserved in these as in other cases, is fully shown by the fact, formerly stated (1173. 1174.), that, however strongly air in a vessel might be charged positively, there was an exactly equal amount of negative force on the inner surface of the vessel itself, for no residual portion of either the one or the other electricity could be obtained.

1444. I have nowhere said, nor does it follow, that the air is charged only where the luminous brush appears. The charging may extend beyond those parts which are visible, i.e. particles to the right or left of the lines of light may receive electricity, the parts which are luminous being so only because much electricity is pa.s.sing by them to other parts (1437.); just as in a spark discharge the light is greater as more electricity pa.s.ses, though it has no necessary relation to the quant.i.ty required to commence discharge (1370. 1420.). Hence the form we see in a brush may by no means represent the whole quant.i.ty of air electrified; for an invisible portion, clothing the visible form to a certain depth, may, at the same time, receive its charge (1552.).

1445. Several effects which I have met with in muriatic acid gas tend to make me believe, that that gaseous body allows of a dark discharge. At the same time, it is quite clear from theory, that in some gases, the reverse of this may occur, i.e. that the charging of the air may not extend even so far as the light. We do not know as yet enough of the electric light to be able to state on what it depends, and it is very possible that, when electricity bursts forth into air, all the particles of which are in a state of tension, light may be evolved by such as, being very near to, are not of, those which actually receive a charge at the time.

1446. The further a brush extends in a gas, the further no doubt is the charge or discharge carried forward; but this may vary between different gases, and yet the intensity required for the first moment of discharge not vary in the same, but in some other proportion. Thus with respect to nitrogen and muriatic acid gases, the former, as far as my experiments have proceeded, produces far finer and larger brushes than the latter (1458.

1462.), but the intensity required to commence discharge is much higher for the muriatic acid than the nitrogen (1395.). Here again, therefore, as in many other qualities, specific differences are presented by different gaseous dielectrics, and so prove the special relation of the latter to the act and the phenomena of induction.

1447. To sum up these considerations respecting the character and condition of the brush, I may state that it is a spark to air; a diffusion of electric force to matter, not by conduction, but disruptive discharge, a dilute spark which, pa.s.sing to very badly conducting matter, frequently discharges but a small portion of the power stored up in the conductor; for as the air charged reacts on the conductor, whilst the conductor, by loss of electricity, sinks in its force (1435.), the discharge quickly ceases, until by the dispersion of the charged air and the renewal of the excited conditions of the conductor, circ.u.mstances have risen up to their first effective condition, again to cause discharge, and again to fall and rise,

1448. The brush and spark gradually pa.s.s into one another, Making a small ball positive by a good electrical machine with a large prime conductor, and approaching a large uninsulated discharging ball towards it, very beautiful variations from the spark to the brush may be obtained. The drawings of long and powerful sparks, given by Van Marum[A], Harris[B], and others, also indicate the same phenomena. As far as I have observed, whenever the spark has been brushy in air of common pressures, the whole of the electricity has not been discharged, but only portions of it, more or less according to circ.u.mstances; whereas, whenever the effect has been a distinct spark throughout the whole of its course, the discharge has been perfect, provided no interruption had been made to it elsewhere, in the discharging circuit, than where the spark occurred.

[A] Description of the Teylerian machine, vol. i. pp. 28. 32.; vol.

ii. p. 226, &c.

[B] Philosophical Transactions, 1834, p. 213.

1449. When an electrical brush from an inch to six inches in length or more is issuing into free air, it has the form given, fig. 117. But if the hand, a ball, of any k.n.o.bbed conductor be brought near, the extremities of the coruscations turn towards it and each other, and the whole a.s.sumes various forms according to circ.u.mstances, as in figs. 119, 120, and 121. The influence of the circ.u.mstances in each case is easily traced, and I might describe it here, but that I should be ashamed to occupy the time of the Society in things so evident. But how beautifully does the curvature of the ramifications ill.u.s.trate the curved form of the lines of inductive force existing previous to the discharge! for the former are consequences of the latter, and take their course, in each discharge, where the previous inductive tension had been raised to the proper degree. They represent these curves just as well as iron filings represent magnetic curves, the visible effects in both cases being the consequences of the action of the forces in _the places where_ the effects appear. The phenomena, therefore, const.i.tute additional and powerful testimony (1216. 1230.) to that already given in favour both of induction through dielectrics in curved lines (1231.), and of the lateral relation of these lines, by an effect equivalent to a repulsion producing divergence, or, as in the cases figured, the bulging form.

1450. In reference to the theory of molecular inductive action, I may also add, the proof deducible from the long brushy ramifying spark which, may be obtained between a small ball on the positive conductor of an electrical machine, and a larger one at a distance (1448. 1504.). What a fine ill.u.s.tration that spark affords of the previous condition of _all_ the particles of the dielectric between the surfaces of discharge, and how unlike the appearances are to any which would be deduced from the theory which a.s.sumes inductive action to be action at a distance, in straight lines only; and charge, as being electricity retained upon the surface of conductors by the mere pressure of the atmosphere!

1451. When the brush is obtained in rarefied air, the appearances vary greatly, according to circ.u.mstances, and are exceedingly beautiful.

Sometimes a brush may be formed of only six or seven branches, these being broad and highly luminous, of a purple colour, and in some parts an inch or more apart: by a spark discharge at the prime conductor (1455.) single brushes may be obtained at pleasure. Discharge in the form of a brush is favoured by rarefaction of the air, in the same manner and for the same reason as discharge in the form of a spark (1375.); but in every case there is previous induction and charge through the dielectric, and polarity of its particles (1437.), the induction being, as in any other instance, alternately raised by the machine and lowered by the discharge. In certain experiments the rarefaction was increased to the utmost degree, and the opposed conducting surfaces brought as near together as possible without producing glow (1529.): the brushes then contracted in their lateral dimensions, and recurred so rapidly as to form an apparently continuous arc of light from metal to metal. Still the discharge could be observed to intermit (1427.), so that even under these high conditions, induction preceded each single brush, and the tense polarized condition of the contiguous particles was a necessary preparation for the discharge itself.

1452. The brush form of disruptive discharge may be obtained not only in air and gases, but also in much denser media. I procured it in _oil of turpentine_ from the end of a wire going through a gla.s.s tube into the fluid contained in a metal vessel. The brush was small and very difficult to obtain; the ramifications were simple, and stretched out from each other, diverging very much. The light was exceedingly feeble, a perfectly dark room being required for its observation. When a few solid particles, as of dust or silk, were in the liquid, the brush was produced with much greater facility.

1453. The running together or coalescence of different lines of discharge (1412.) is very beautifully shown in the brush in air. This point may present a little difficulty to those who are not accustomed to see in every discharge an equal exertion of power in opposite directions, a positive brush being considered by such (perhaps in consequence of the common phrase _direction of a current_) as indicating a breaking forth in different directions of the original force, rather than a tendency to convergence and union in one line of pa.s.sage. But the ordinary case of the brush may be compared, for its ill.u.s.tration, with that in which, by holding the knuckle opposite to highly excited gla.s.s, a discharge occurs, the ramifications of a brush then leading from the gla.s.s and converging into a spark on the knuckle. Though a difficult experiment to make, it is possible to obtain discharge between highly excited sh.e.l.l-lac and the excited gla.s.s of a machine: when the discharge pa.s.ses, it is, from the nature of the charged bodies, brush at each end and spark in the middle, beautifully ill.u.s.trating that tendency of discharge to facilitate like action, which I have described in a former page (1418.).

1454. The brush has _specific characters_ in different gases, indicating a relation to the particles of these bodies even in a stronger degree than the spark (1422. 1423.). This effect is in strong contrast with the non-variation caused by the use of different substances as _conductors_ from which the brushes are to originate. Thus, using such bodies as wood, card, charcoal, nitre, citric acid, oxalic acid, oxide of lead, chloride of lead, carbonate of pota.s.sa, pota.s.sa fusa, strong solution of potash, oil of vitriol, sulphur, sulphuret of antimony, and haemat.i.te, no variation in the character of the brushes was obtained, except that (dependent upon their effect as better or worse conductors) of causing discharge with more or less readiness and quickness from the machine[A].

[A] Exception must, of course, be made of those cases where the root of the brush, becoming a spark, causes a little diffusion or even decomposition of the matter there, and so gains more or less of a particular colour at that part.

1455. The following are a few of the effects I observed in different ga.s.ses at the positively charged surfaces, and with atmospheres varying in their pressure. The general effect of rarefaction was the same for all the gases: at first, sparks pa.s.sed; these gradually were converted into brushes, which became larger and more distinct in their ramifications, until, upon further rarefaction, the latter began to collapse and draw in upon each other, till they formed a stream across from conductor to conductor: then a few lateral streams shot out towards the gla.s.s of the vessel from the conductors; these became thick and soft in appearance, and were succeeded by the full constant glow which covered the discharging wire. The phenomena varied with the size of the vessel (1477.), the degree of rarefaction, and the discharge of electricity from the machine. When the latter was in successive sparks, they were most beautiful, the effect of a spark from a small machine being equal to, and often surpa.s.sing, that produced by the _constant_ discharge of a far more powerful one.

1456. _Air._--Fine positive brushes are easily obtained in air at common pressures, and possess the well-known purplish light. When the air is rarefied, the ramifications are very long, filling the globe (1477.); the light is greatly increased, and is of a beautiful purple colour, with an occasional rose tint in it.

1457. _Oxygen._--At common pressures, the brush is very close and compressed, and of a dull whitish colour. In rarefied oxygen, the form and appearance are better, the colour somewhat purplish, but all the characters very poor compared to those in air.

1458. _Nitrogen_ gives brushes with great facility at the positive surface, far beyond any other gas I have tried: they are almost always fine in form, light, and colour, and in rarefied nitrogen, are magnificent. They surpa.s.s the discharges in any other gas as to the quant.i.ty of light evolved.

1459. _Hydrogen_, at common pressures, gave a better brush than oxygen, but did not equal nitrogen; the colour was greenish gray. In rarefied hydrogen, the ramifications were very fine in form and distinctness, but pale in colour, with a soft and velvety appearance, and not at all equal to those in nitrogen. In the rarest state of the gas, the colour of the light was a pale gray green.

1460. _Coal gas._--The brushes were rather difficult to produce, the contrast with nitrogen being great in this respect. They were short and strong, generally of a greenish colour, and possessing much of the spark character: for, occurring on both the positive and negative terminations, often when there was a dark interval of some length between the two brushes, still the quick, sharp sound of the spark was produced, as if the discharge had been sudden through this gas, and partaking, in that respect, of the character of a spark. In rare coal gas, the brush forms were better, but the light very poor and the colour gray.

1461. _Carbonic acid gas_ produces a very poor brush at common pressures, as regards either size, light, or colour; and this is probably connected with the tendency which this gas has to discharge the electricity as a spark (1422.). In rarefied carbonic acid, the brush is better in form, but weak as to light, being of a dull greenish or purplish line, varying with the pressure and other circ.u.mstances.

1462. _Muriatic acid gas._--It is very difficult to obtain the brush in this gas at common pressures. On gradually increasing the distance of the rounded ends, the sparks suddenly ceased when the interval was about an inch, and the discharge, which was still through the gas in the globe, was silent and dark. Occasionally a very short brush could for a few moments be obtained, but it quickly disappeared. Even when the intermitting spark current (1455.) from the machine was used, still I could only with difficulty obtain a brush, and that very short, though I used rods with rounded terminations (about 0.25 of an inch in diameter) which had before given them most freely in air and nitrogen. During the time of this difficulty with the muriatic gas, magnificent brushes were pa.s.sing off from different parts of the machine into the surrounding air. On rarefying the gas, the formation of the brush was facilitated, but it was generally of a low squat form, very poor in light, and very similar on both the positive and negative surfaces. On rarefying the gas still more, a few large ramifications were obtained of a pale bluish colour, utterly unlike those in nitrogen.