galvanometer is meant the deflexion produced by a known electromotive
force put upon its terminals or a known current sent through
it. It is usual to specify the sensitiveness of a mirror galvanometer
by requiring a certain deflexion, measured in millimetres, of a spot
of light thrown on the scale placed at one metre from the mirror,
when an electromotive force of one-millionth of a volt (microvolt)
is applied to the terminals of the galvanometer; it may be otherwise
expressed by stating the deflexion produced under the same conditions
when a current of one microampere is passed through the
coil. In modern mirror galvanometers a deflexion of 1 mm. of the
spot of light upon a scale at 1 metre distance can be produced by a
current as small as one hundred millionth (10−8) or even one ten
thousand millionth (10−10) of an ampere. It is easy to produce
considerable sensitiveness in the galvanometer, but for practical
purposes it must always be controlled by the condition that the
zero remains fixed, that is to say, the galvanometer needle or coil
must come back to exactly the same position when no current is
passing through the instrument. Other important qualifications
of a galvanometer are its time-period and its dead-beatness. For
certain purposes the needle or coil should return as quickly as
possible to the zero position and with either no, or very few, oscillations.
If the latter condition is fulfilled the galvanometer is said
to be “dead-beat.” On the other hand, for some purposes the
galvanometer is required with the opposite quality, that is to say,
there must be as little retardation as possible to the needle or coil
when set in motion under an impulsive blow. Such a galvanometer
is called “ballistic.” The quality of a galvanometer in this respect
is best estimated by taking the logarithmic decrement of the oscillations
when the movable system is set swinging. This last term is
defined as the logarithm of the ratio of one swing to the next succeeding
swing, and a galvanometer of which the logarithmic decrement
is large, is said to be highly damped. For many purposes, such as
for resistance measurement, it is desirable to have a galvanometer
which is highly damped; this result can be obtained by affixing
to the needles either light pieces of mica, when it is a movable needle
galvanometer, or by winding the coil on a silver frame when it is
a movable coil galvanometer. On the other hand, for the comparison
of capacities of condensers and for other purposes, a galvanometer
is required which is as little damped as possible, and for this purpose
the coil must have the smallest possible frictional resistance to its
motion through the air. In this case the moment of inertia of the
movable system must be decreased or the control strengthened.
The Einthoven string galvanometer is another form of sensitive instrument for the measurement of small direct currents. It consists of a fine wire or silvered quartz fibre stretched in a strong magnetic field. When a current passes through the wire it is displaced across the field and the displacement is observed with a microscope.
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| Fig. 3.—Helmholtz Tangent Galvanometer. |
For the measurement of large currents a “tangent galvanometer” is employed (fig. 3). Two fixed circular coils are placed apart at a distance equal to the radius of either coil, so that a current passing through them creates in the central region between them a nearly uniform magnetic field. Tangent galvanometer. At the centre of the coils is suspended a small magnetic needle the length of which should not be greater than 110 the radius of either coil. The normal position of the needle is at right angles to the line joining the centre of the coils. If a current is passed through the coils, the needle will be deflected, and the tangent of the angle of its deflexion will be nearly proportional to the current passing through the coil, provided that the controlling field is uniform in strength and direction, and that the length of the magnetic needle is so short that the space in which it rotates is a practically uniform magnetic field.
Alternating Current Galvanometers.—For the detection of small alternating currents a magnetic needle or movable coil galvanometer is of no utility. We can, however, construct an instrument suitable for the purpose by suspending within a coil of insulated wire a small needle of soft iron placed with its axis at an angle of 45° to the axis of the coil. When an alternating current passes through the coil the soft iron needle tends to set itself in the direction of the axis of the coil, and if it is suspended by a quartz fibre or metallic wire so as to afford a control, it can become a metrical instrument. Another arrangement, devised by J. A. Fleming in 1887, consists of a silver or copper disk suspended within a coil, the plane of the disk being held at 45° to that of the coil. When an alternating current is passed through the coil, induced currents are set up in the disk and the mutual action causes the disk to endeavour to set itself so that these currents are a minimum. This metal disk galvanometer has been made sufficiently sensitive to detect the feeble oscillatory electric currents set up in the receiving wire of a wireless telegraph apparatus. The Duddell thermal ammeter is another very sensitive form of alternating current galvanometer. In it the current to be detected or measured is passed through a high resistance wire or strip of metal leaf mounted on glass, over which is suspended a closed loop of bismuth and antimony, forming a thermoelectric couple. This loop is suspended by a quartz fibre in a strong magnetic field, and one junction of the couple is held just over the resistance wire and as near it as possible without touching. When an alternating current passes through the resistance it creates heat which in turn acts on the thermo-junction and generates a continuous current in the loop, thus deflecting it in the magnetic field. The sensitiveness of such a thermal ammeter can be made sufficiently great to detect a current of a few microamperes.
References.—J. A. Fleming, A Handbook for the Electrical Laboratory and Testing Room, vol. i. (London, 1901); W. E. Ayrton, T. Mather and W. E. Sumpner, “On Galvanometers,” Proc. Phys. Soc. London (1890), 10, 393; H. R. Kempe, A Handbook of Electrical Testing (London, 1906); A. Gray, Absolute Measurements in Electricity and Magnetism, vol. ii. part ii. (London, 1893). Useful information is also contained in the catalogues of all the principal electrical instrument makers—Messrs. Elliott Bros., Nalder, The Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company, Pitkin, Hartmann and Braun, Queen and others. (J. A. F.)
GALVESTON, a city and port of entry and the county-seat of
Galveston county, Texas, U.S.A., on the Gulf of Mexico, near the
N.E. extremity of Galveston Island and at the entrance to
Galveston Bay. It is about 48 m. S.E. of Houston and 310 m.
W. of New Orleans. Pop. (1890) 29,084; (1900) 37,789,
(6339 were foreign-born and 8291 negroes); (1910) 36,981; land
area (1906) 7.8 sq. m. It is served by the Galveston, Houston
& Henderson, the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio, the
Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fé, the Trinity & Brazos Valley,
the International & Great Northern, and the Missouri, Kansas
& Texas railways, and by numerous steamship lines to Gulf
ports in the United States and Mexico, and to Cuba, South
America, Europe and the Atlantic ports of the United States.
Galveston Island is a low, sandy strip of land about 28 m. long
and 112 to 312 m. wide, lying from 2 to 3 m. off the mainland.
The city, which extends across the island from Gulf to Bay,
faces and has its harbour on the latter. The island was connected
with the mainland before the 1900 storm by a road bridge and
several railway bridges, which, a short distance W. of the city,
crossed the narrow strip of water separating the West Bay from
Galveston Bay proper; the bridge least harmed (a single-track
railway bridge) was repaired immediately and was for a time the
city’s only connexion with the mainland, but in 1908 bonds were
issued for building a concrete causeway, accommodating four
railway tracks, one interurban car track, and a roadway for
vehicles and pedestrians. An enormous sea-wall (completed in
1904 at a cost of $2,091,000) was constructed on the eastern and
Gulf sides of the city, about 5 m. long, 17 ft. above mean low tide
(1.5 ft. above the high-water mark of the storm of 1900 and 7.5 ft.
above the previous high-water mark, that of September 1875),
16 ft. wide at the base and 5 ft. at the top, weighing 20 tons to the
lineal foot, and with a granite rip-rap apron extending out 27 ft.
on the Gulf side. The entire grade of the city was raised from 1 to
15 ft. above the old level. Between the sea-wall and the sea there
is a splendid beach, the entire length of which is nearly 30 m.
Among the principal buildings are the city hall, the court-house,
the masonic temple, the Federal custom-house and post-office,
the Y.M.C.A. building and the public library. The United States
government maintains a marine hospital, a live-saving station,
an immigrant landing station, and the state and the Federal
government separate quarantine stations. In addition to the
Ball public high school, Galveston is the seat of St Mary’s
University (1854), the Sacred Heart and Ursuline academies, and
the Cathedral school, all under Roman Catholic control.
The government of the municipality was long vested in a council of ward aldermen, controlled by a “machine,” which was proved corrupt in 1894 by an investigation undertaken at the personal expense of the mayor; it gave place in 1895 to a city council of aldermen at large, which by 1901 had proved its inefficiency especially in the crisis following the storm of the preceding year. Government then seemed a business question and was practically undertaken by the city’s commercial experts, the Deepwater commission, whose previous aim had been harbour improvement, and who now drew up a charter providing for government by a board of five appointed by the governor of the state. A compromise measure making three members appointees
