Scientific American MARCH 16, 1907
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234 Scientific American MARCH 16, 1907. on which he believes the originals were constructed. pressure of the spring by means of a screw the point LEDUC'S ARTIFICIAL PLANTS AND CELLS. Some of these are shown in the accompanying illustra of maximum sensitiveness can easily be obtained. BY DR. ALFRED GRA.DENWITZ. tions. None was found in the ruins. The manner in The exact proportions of the crystal are not essential A strong reaction against the some'Nhat childish which these writing instruments were used is also and it may vary from one to three millimeters on the endeavors of the alchemists to convert one element shown in one of the engravings herewith. side. The crystal to be used should never be touched into another and to generate living beings from inert • • • by the fingers, as this often reduces its sensitiveness matter, pervades the history of nineteenth century CARBORUNDUM AND SILICON DETECTORS FOR to an appreciable extent; the proper way to handle the science. Perhaps we have been prone rather too eager WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY. element is to use a pair of tweezers. ly to discard the doctrines of former times, banishing BY A. FREDERICK COLLINS. Since the advent of the Dunwoody carborundum de- many theories which in the course of the last few years A novel detector for determining the presence of have again been found worthy of serious discussion. electlric waves, has just been brought out by General We are no doubt at present on the eve of great revo H. H. C. Dunwoody, and has been found sufficiently lutions in our scientific views; the phenomena of radio sensitive and trustworthy to be used for commercial activity have shaken the belief in the immutability of wireless telegraphic work. the atom and even the principle of the preservation of The device in question consis� of a minute mass matter, at least in its familiar form. Nor does the or fragment of carborundum-an artificial compound distinction of three strictly separated states of aggre made of carbon and silicon in the electric furnace gation stand the test of recent investigation; transi held in place between two metallic terminals or con tions are found to exist between the different states, ductor plugs, usually formed of copper or brass. and we are warranted in presuming that between the This detector has recently been made the subject of material and the immaterial (the luminous ether) exhaustive tests by Mr. G. W. Pickard, who has found there are likewise numberless intermediary states. that it is somewhat less sensitive than the magnetic Finally there have been discovered transitional stages detector of Marconi, which in turn follows the electro between inert matter and living beings, from which lytic detector of Fessenden; that is to say, while it many interesting conclusions in regard to the nature requires from 350 to 400 micro-ergs (1 micro-erg being of life can be drawn. THE NEW DUNWOODY CARBORUNDUM DETECTOR 1/1000 of an erg*) to operate the electrolytic detector, While Prof. Lehmann's recent researches on ap INSERTED IN A RECEPTOR. and from 400 to 500 micro-ergs to impress a magnetic parently living crystals have shown that certain bodies, detector, it requires between 9,000 and 14,000 micro mineral in outward appearance, behave like living ergs to carry the conductivity of a carborundum de tector, Pickard has brought out' one using silicon as organisms of the lowest type (bacteria), Prof. Leduc, tector so that it will produce an audible tone in a the sensitive medium. Silicon is a non-metallic ele of Nantes, has fouIld the vHal functions in animal telephone receiver, with about the same amount of ment, prepared as a dull-brown amorphous powder, as and vegetable cells to be controlled exclusively by the energy required by a microphone detector. shining metallic scales or as dark steel-gray granules, physical laws of diffusion (osmosis) and cohesion Notwithstanding this very considerable difference in sometimes showing crystallization. Any one of these (molecular attraction). On the basis of these phe the sensitiveness of the electrolytic and carborundum may be used as a detector, and in any case it is pressed nomena he has even succeeded in artificially producing detectors when measured in the C. G. S. system of into good electrical contact between two conducting objects which, not only in appearance but in behavior, units, in the a.ctual practice of wireless telegraphy the plugs as in the ordinary coherer. closely resemble natural cells, growing, absorbing food, ' difference in receptiveness is barely perceptible over Different from the coherer, this latest "thermo-elec lJ-nd propagating themselves in exactly the same way. similar distances. In the first experiments with car tric regenerative detector" converts the energy of the The botanist might be somewhat embarrassed when borundum as an electric wave.detector, it was found oscillation set up in the receiving. aerial, into heat at asked to incorporate in his familiar system of clatlses, 1 that its sensibility to the electric oscillations set up the junction of the silicon and the metal fOl:ming the orders, and families.,the forms .. i1lustrated .in IFigs. 4. in the circuit of which it was a part, was a maximum conductor plugs by virtue of the high resistance of to Still he would hardly have any doubt of their when a certain critical potential prevailed in the local the former and the low resistance of the latter. genuineness, their whole aspect being typical of repre circuit of which it also formed a part. The amount of heat developed by the high thermo sentatives of the vegetable kingdom, especially of cer In this respect it resembles the electrolytic detector electromotive force, and the consequent temperature tain water plants. when in action. For this reason a potentiometer or rise, is proportional to the square of the resistance, Nevertheless, they are not living beings of any sort, variable resistance is used in shunt with the detector. according to the well-known law of Joule. The de but artificial bodies formed in the laboratory of the chem As carborundum is obtained in the form of crystalline tector gets its name as indicated above from the fact ist. While their very aspect is certain to inspire in masses, it has, in consequence, a very high resistance that this thermal energy is converted or regenerated terest, it is obviously far more interesting to observe where the current flowing in the internal or dry cell into a direct electric current, the detector performing \hem in the making, to watch how from an artificial circuit is small, but as the strength of the current is the same function as all others that have been de seed a shoot springs and develops (at a rate readily· increased the resistance drops very rapidly. vised, namely, that of a very delicate relay. controlled by the experimenter) into stems, leaves, Various curves have been plotted showing the re .. ' ... buds, twigs; ears, and blossoms, and after some time dies like a real plant. The birth and death of a plant sistance variation against the differe.nce of potential A machine for applying screws at the rate of fifty a can thus be artificially reproduced within the space across the conductor plugs of the detector, and in one minute, if necessary, has recently been placed on the of a few hours. of these it was demonstrated that the conductive market and consists of a hopper connected by a vertical Below are given some details concerning the arti charge occurred most rapidly between 1.0 and 1.1 volts. flexible shaft and tube to the driving mechanism below. ficial seed and the medium in which it is immersed for The conductance of the detector at this potential was The withdrawal of the bit from each screw as it is about �50 microhms, or 0.4000 ohm, and a variation of germination. A seed one to two millimeters in diam 0.01 volt at the above potential value will produce a eter, consisting of two parts of saccharose (cane sugar) change in condtlctivity of about 10 microhms, or -! and one part of copper sulphate, is immersed ill an per cent. aqueous solution containing two to four per cent o.f potassium ferro cyanide, one to ten per cent of sodium It is well known that the flat side of carborun� .• m chloride or some other salt, and one to four per cent is a very poor conductor and in order to obtain good of gelatine. In this solution, the seed germinates in electrical contact, the sharp edges of the carborundum a few days or a few hours according to temperatute; fragment must be clamped between the opposed sur faces of the plug ends of the detector, when the actual under favorable conditions the germinating process can even be shown as a lecture experiment in a few contact is rmited to an exceedingly small area-not minutes. more than Olle millionth of an inch and probably less. The seed surrounds itself with a membrane of cop In common with the Fessenden hot-wire barretter per ferrocyanide which is permeable to water and to and responders of the bolometric type, the action of certain ions, but is impermeable to sugar. This semi the new Dunwoody detector is purely thermal. But in permeability produces a high osmotic pressure in the stead of utilizing either an exceedingly fine metal wire interior of the artificial seed, resulting in the absorp of relatively low specific resistance and temperature tion of matter from the surrounding medium and thus coefficient, as does the barretter, or a large radiating in the growth of the whole structure.