The Induction Tube of W. Siemens

Abstract

A TRANSLATION from a French periodical, La Nature, of an article on “Tubes for silent electrical discharges,” appears in NATURE of Jan.29(vol. ix. p. 244). After referring to the action of the electric spark upon oxygen gas, the author of the article continues:” for the purpose of more easily obtaining ozone, M. Houzeau has recently constructed an apparatus worked by a Ruhmkorff coil, in which there are no longer sparks, but only dark discharges—effluvia—far more efficacious in the production of modified oxygen.” Again, it is said, that M. Houzeau “has recently devised an apparatus for the preparation of ozone, which is spreading rapidly among the laboratories, and which has already yielded very remarkable results.” A description of the apparatus is then given; further on, it is said, that “M. Houzeau is not the only one who has made use of the tubes whose structure he has made known, but that M. Boillot, a writer, it appears,” well known to the readers of the Moniteur, “has made some further propositions about them; and lastly, that M. A. Thénard” (whose investigations constitute the main subject of the aiticle) “has brought to bear on the construction of the tubes a further modification which makes them still more efficacious.” A description and drawing of the apparatus of M. A. Thénard is given. Those who are unacquainted with the facts of the case will be surprised to learn that the invention thus publicly announced, although, doubtless, in principle, deserving of the highest praise, was not made either by M. Houzeau, M. Boillot, or M. A. Thénard, but is simply a somewhat clumsy form of the Induction-tube devised by W. Siemens, which is described hi his “Memoir on Electrostatic Induction,” contained in Poggendorff's Annalen, for 1857 (vol. cii. p. 120).