Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.11593

    Spark discharge figure

    Date
    1892
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (drawing): 88mm
    width (drawing): 108mm
    Subject
    Description
    Diagram created by sparking from Lord Armstrong’s machine for producing high tension electricity. These patterns were made in a powder of magnesium oxide (‘calcined magnesia’) and carbon black. The images were then photographed and drawings produced from them.

    The author states in his paper that: ‘No.1 was produced by a succession of sparks from six combined coils discharged simultaneously. The tracks of the sparks, the surrounding circular lines, the impress of the positive and negative wires, the strong emanations from the positive wire and the feeble ones from the negative, are shown in this figure’.

    Illustration from the manuscript version of the paper ‘On a multiple induction machine for producing high tension electricity, and on some remarkable results obtained with it’, by Lord Armstrong, Proceedings of the Royal Society, vol.52 (1892), pp.176-191. Printed as figure 1 plate 2 in the published paper.

    The image is inscribed below in ink: ‘No.1’ and in pencil ‘4/10’. Imprint details verso.

    William George Armstrong, Baron Armstrong (1810-1900) armaments manufacturer and industrialist was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1846.
    Associated place
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