Galvanometers may be divided into direct current and alternating current instruments, according as they are intended to measure one or other of these two classes of currents (see Electrokinetics).
Direct Current Galvanometers.—The principle on which one type of direct current galvanometer, called a movable needle galvanometer, depends for its action is that a small magnet when suspended in the centre of a coil of wire tends to set its magnetic axis in the direction of the magnetic field of the coil at that point due to the current passing through it. In the other type, or movable coil galvanometer, the coil is suspended and the magnet fixed; hence the coil tends to set itself with its axis parallel to the lines of force of the magnet. The movable system must be constrained in some way to take up and retain a definite position when no current is passing by means which are called the “control.”
In its simple and original form the movable needle galvanometer consisted of a horizontal magnetic needle suspended within a coil of insulated wire by silk fibres or pivoted on a point like a compass needle. The direction of such a needle is controlled by the direction of the terrestrial magnetic force Movable needle galvanometer. within the coil. If the needle is so placed that its axis is parallel to the plane of the coil, then when an electric current passes through the coil it is deflected and places itself at an angle to the axis of the coil determined by the strength of the current and of the controlling field. In the early forms of movable needle galvanometer the needle was either a comparatively large magnet several inches in length, or else a smaller magnet was employed carrying a long pointer which moved over a scale of degrees so as to indicate the deflexion. A method of measuring the deflexion by means of a mirror scale and telescope was introduced by K. F. Gauss and W. Weber. The magnet had a mirror attached to it, and a telescope having cross wires in the focus was used to observe the scale divisions of a fixed scale seen reflected in the mirror. Lord Mirror galvanometers. Kelvin (Professor W. Thomson) made the important improvement of reducing the size of the needle and attaching it to the back of a very small mirror, the two being suspended by a single fibre of cocoon silk. The mirror was made of silvered microscopic glass about 14 in. in diameter, and the magnetic needle or needles consisted of short fragments of watchspring cemented to its back. A ray of light being thrown on the mirror from a lamp the deflexions of the needle were observed by watching the movements of a spot of light reflected from it upon a fixed scale. This form of mirror galvanometer was first devised in connexion with submarine cable signalling, but soon became an indispensable instrument in the physical laboratory.
In course of time both the original form of single needle galvanometer and mirror galvanometer were improved by introducing the astatic principle and weakening the external controlling magnetic field. If two magnetic needles of equal size and moment are attached rigidly to one stem parallel to each Astatic galvanometers. other but with poles placed in opposite directions an astatic system results; that is, if the needles are so suspended as to be free to move in a horizontal plane, and if they are made exactly equal in magnetic strength, the system will have no directive power. If one needle is slightly weaker than the other, the suspended system will set itself with some axis parallel to the lines of force of a field in which it is placed. In a form of astatic needle galvanometer devised by Professor A. Broca of Paris, the pair of magnetized needles are suspended vertically and parallel to each other with poles in opposite directions. The upper poles are included in one coil and the lower poles within another coil, so connected that the current circulates in the right direction in each coil to displace the pairs of poles in the same direction. By this mode of arrangement a greater magnetic moment can be secured, together with more perfect astaticity and freedom from disturbance by external fields. The earth’s magnetic field can be weakened by means of a controlling magnet arranged to create in the space in the interior of the galvanometer coils an extremely feeble controlling magnetic field. In instruments having a coil for each needle and designed so that the current in both coils passes so as to turn both needles in the same direction, the controlling magnet is so adjusted that the normal position of the needles is with the magnetic axis parallel to the plane of the coil. An astatic magnetic system used in conjunction with a mirror galvanometer gives a highly sensitive form of instrument (fig. 1); it is, however, easily disturbed by stray magnetic fields caused by neighbouring magnets or currents through conductors, and therefore is not suitable for use in many places.
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| Fig. 1.—Kelvin Astatic Mirror Galvanometer. Elliott square pattern. |
This fact led to the introduction of the movable coil galvanometer which was first devised by Lord Kelvin as a telegraphic signalling instrument but subsequently modified by A. d’Arsonval and others into a laboratory galvanometer (fig. 2). In this instrument a permanent magnet, generally of the horseshoe Movable coil galvanometer. shape, is employed to create a strong magnetic field, in which a light movable coil is suspended. The suspension is bifilar, consisting of two fine wires which are connected to the ends of the coil and serve to lead the current in and out. If such a coil is placed with its plane parallel to the lines of force of the permanent magnet, then when a current is passing through it it displaces itself in the field, so as to set with its axis more nearly parallel to the lines of force of the field. The movable coil may carry a pointer or a mirror; in the latter form it is well represented by several much used laboratory instruments. The movable coil galvanometer has the great advantage that it is not easily disturbed by the magnetic fields caused by neighbouring magnets or electric currents, and thus is especially useful in the electrical workshop and factory.
In the practical construction of the suspended needle fixed coil galvanometer great care must be taken with the insulation of the wire of the coil. This wire is generally silk-covered, wound on a frame, the whole being thoroughly saturated with paraffin wax. In some cases two wires are wound Construction and use. on in parallel, constituting a “differential galvanometer.” When properly adjusted this instrument can be used for the exact comparison of electric currents by a null method, because if an electric current is passed through one wire and creates certain deflexions of the needle, the current which annuls this deflexion when passed through the other wire must be equal to the first current. In the construction of a movable coil galvanometer, it is usual to intensify the magnetic field by inserting a fixed soft iron core in the interior of the movable coil. If the current to be measured is too large to be passed entirely through the galvanometer, a portion is allowed to flow through a circuit connecting the two terminals of the instrument. This circuit is called a shunt and is generally arranged so as to take 0.9, 0.99, or 0.999 of the total current, leaving 0.1, 0.01 or 0.001 to flow through the galvanometer. W. E. Ayrton and T. Mather have designed a universal shunt box or resistance which can be applied to any galvanometer and by which a known fraction of any current can be sent through the galvanometer when we know its resistance (see Jour. Inst. Elec. Eng. Lond., 1894, 23, p. 314). A galvanometer can be calibrated, or the meaning of its deflexion determined, by passing through it an electric current of known value and observing the deflexion of the needle or coil. The known current can be provided in the following manner:—a single secondary cell of any kind can have its electromotive force measured by the potentiometer (q.v.), and compared with that of a standard voltaic cell. If the secondary cell is connected with the galvanometer through a known high resistance R, and if the galvanometer is shunted, that is, has its terminals connected by another resistance S, then if the resistance of the galvanometer itself is denoted by G, the whole resistance of the shunted galvanometer and high resistance has a value represented by R + GSG+S, and therefore the current through the galvanometer produced by an electromotive force E of the cell is represented by
SER(G+S)+GS
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| Fig. 2.—Movable Coil Galvanometer. |
Suppose this current produces a deflexion of the needle or coil or spot of light equal to X scale divisions, we can then alter the value of the resistances R and S, and so determine the relation between the deflexion and the current. By the sensitiveness of the
