water adhering to the metallic particles through which electrolytic action occurs,
A good metallic filings tube for use as a receiver in Hertzian wave telegraphy should exhibit a constancy of action and should cohere and decohere to use the common terms, sharply, at the smallest possible tap. It should not have a current passed through it by the external cell of more than a fraction of a milliampere, or else it becomes wounded and unsensitive.
The investigations which have already taken place seem to show pretty clearly that the agency causing the masses of filings to pass from a non-conductive to a conductive condition is electromotive force, and that therefore it is the electromotive force set up in the aerial by the incident waves which is the effective agent in causing the change in the metallic filings tube, when this is used as a telegraphic kumascope. This transformation of the tube from a non-conductor to a conductor is made to act as a circuit-closer, completing the circuit, by means of which a single cell of a local battery is made to send current through an ordinary telegraph relay, and so by the aid of a second battery operate a telegraphic printer or recorder of any kind. Hence, it is clear that after one impact, the metallic filings tube has to be brought back to its non-conductive condition, and this may be achieved in several ways. (1) By the administration of carefully regulated taps or shocks or by rotating the tube on its axis; (2) by the aid of an alternating current; (3) in those cases where filings of magnetic metals are employed, by magnetism.
The decoherence by taps was discovered by Branly,[1] and Popoff, following the example of Sir Oliver Lodge, employed an electric bell arrangement for this purpose.[2]
Mr. Marconi, in his original receiving instruments, placed an electromagnet under the coherer tube with a vibrating armature like an electric bell.[3] This armature carries a small hammer or tapper, which, when set in action, hits the tube on the under side, and various adjusting screws are arranged for regulating exactly the force and amplitude of the blows. This tapper is actuated by the same current as the Morse printer, or other telegraphic recorder, so that when the signal is received and the metallic filings tube passes into the conductive condition and closes the relay circuit, this latter in turn closes the circuit of the Morse printer or other recorder, and, at the same time, a current passes through the electromagnet of the tapper and the tube is tapped back. This sequence of operations requires a certain
