Paper, 'On the heating effects of electric currents' by W H [William Henry] Preece

Description

Preece writes: 'The production of heat in electrical conductors due to the transference of electricity through them has become a matter of very great practical importance. A knowledge of the variation of the law, due to the dimensions and character of the conductor, is essential for lightning protectors and for the leads of electric lights. Atmospheric electricity has proved a great danger to insulated wires, subterranean and submarine, and to telegraphic apparatus generally. Not only do the direct discharges of atmospheric electricity enter the wires, but very powerful currents are induced in neighbouring wires when these discharges take place, either between cloud and cloud or between cloud and earth. Various plans have been devised to protect apparatus and wires from these currents. Lightning protectors based on the effect of points, on the facility of discharge through vacua, on the low resistance of thin air-spaces to high potential, and on the fusibility of thin wires, have been used.'

Annotations in pencil and ink. Includes three diagrams of experimental apparatus and results.

Subject: Electricity

Received 19 March 1884. Read 27 March 1884.

A version of this paper was published in volume 36 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'On the heating effects of electric currents'.

Reference number

PP/4/42

Earliest possible date

1884

Physical description

Ink and graphite pencil on paper

Page extent

19 pages

Format

Manuscript
Diagram