N-rays are Homeopathic X-rays

N-rays aren't real. Consider this an abject lesson in bad science.  The N in N-rays stands for the Nancy-Universite in Lorraine France. In 1903, French physicist Rene-Prosper Blondlot was trying to polarize X-Rays. He detected changes in the brightness of the spark in a spark gap placed in an X-ray beam. He took photographs to document the phenomena. He attributed it as a novel and new form of radiation.

You know already that he was wrong. But in the context of the time, it seemed completely plausible. Cathode rays were only first observed in 1869 by Johann Hittorf. Victor Schumann only discovered ultraviolet radiation in 1893. X-rays themselves had only been discovered in 1895 by Wilhelm Rontgen.  Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity in 1896. J.J. Thompson only discovered electrons in 1897. [LINK] Nonetheless, some scientists were able to confirm his findings, others could not.

The experiment was carried out in the dark or low light. Blondlot generated N-rays using an electrified wire inside an iron tube. This is based on Fleming's method for measuring high-frequency currents and electromagnetic waves. He used a Ruhmkorff induction coil,  similar to Adolf Slaby's method for measuring spark resistance. (above)  The N-rays were then detected by their effect on a calcium sulfide thread that glowed slightly in the dark when the rays were refracted through a 60-degree angle prism of aluminum. This wasn't an optical prism like the one that refracts light into rainbows on your grandmothers porch. This was a reflective aluminum wedge with a 2mm gap. A narrow stream of N-rays were refracted through the prism. Blondlot moved the thread across the gap to detect them.

To begin with, his method of detection was imperfect. Calcium sulfide thread was being used like a filament, as in a Crooks tube, or cathode tube... except it wasn't in a vacuum. But the idea of a cathode is that he increased random heat motion of the filament atoms knocks electrons off atoms on the surface of the filament. In a cathode tube the electrons have a negative charge and are repelled by the cathode and attracted to the anode. This excites the atoms of the glass and causing them to fluoresce. In those early experiments by J.J. Thompson  and Eugen Goldstein objects placed in front of the cathode could cast a shadow on the wall. Blondlot was trying to replicate this but without a vacuum tube. It was something that even Michael Faraday would have taken to task a century earlier.

Blondlot was debunked by physicist Robert W. Wood. While observing Blondlot replicate the experiment he surreptitiously removed the prism. Despite it's absence Blondlot continued to detect N-rays. They had been a figment of Blondlot's imagination. The book Flash of the Cathode Rays by Per F. Dahl covers this event in great detail.

Nevil Maskelyne: Epic Troll

Nevil Maskelyne was the first troll in all electronic media.

 

It happened in June of 1903. John Ambrose Fleming was setting up a demonstration of the newest Marconi wireless device at the Royal Institution in London. He was supposed to receive a message from a transmitter in Chelmsford at an arranged time. Before he could begin, his machine began to tap out a message .-. .- - ... over and over.. it spelled R-A-T-S. But Fleming was nearly deaf, so the message continued to the amusement of the staff and spectators. Thanks to assistant Arthur Blok the event was recorded for posterity. Maskelyne was emboldened by the success and proceeded to tab out a bit of bawdy poetic verse.

There was a young fellow of Italy

Who diddled the public quite prettily

Maskelyne was largely self-taught in wireless technology. He had figured out that Marconis claims of true "Hertzian Syntony" were bunk. Maskelyne simply overrode the transmission with an untuned transmitter using a 10 inch induction coil. He knew that Marconi had been specializing in long waves so he used a shorter frequency to bleed in from any resonant frequency. Knowing the lecture began at 5:00 PM, he began his trolling promptly at 5:45 PM. In a word... tango down. More here.

Maskelyne  was a stage magician by trade and had learned Morse code to communicate with his hands during shows. He learned wireless gear well enough to make a spark-gap transmitter to remotely ignite gunpowder.  In 1900, he sent wireless messages between a ground station and a balloon 10 miles away. His ire for Marconi began with his excessively broad patents. It impeded him and other inventors working in early wireless. So he set up a 50 meter antenna near Porthcurno to snoop on the Marconi ship-to-shore transmissions. More here.

It was important that day that Maskelyne proved that wireless transmissions were not secure in any sense of the word. Fleming tried to claim later that Maskelyne had somehow cheated by using an earth ground that his interference was not "fair." But the truth was that those early tuned systems were totally vulnerable to the even earlier untuned or "dirty" systems.  Marconi had been trolled hard and lost. Fleming claimed that his instruments were configured in such a way that interference could not occur, but it did anyway. Editorials of the day gave some credit and praise to Maskelyn's legitimate criticism but others did not appreciate the crudity within their "sacred" institution. The book Scientific Credibility and Technical Standards by Jed Z Buchwald covers the event in great detail.

Maskelyn, Fleming and Marconi argued in the pages of a trade magazine called The Electrician for a couple weeks then in July, realizing that Maskelyne was indeed a troll, a troll of historic proportions. They ceased to respond to his further taunts and in the future they limited their public displays. In 1905 Fleming invented a more precise AC rectifier that was actually able to do what he'd claimed 3 years prior.

The Transformer (Part 2)

Lucien Gaulard and John Dixon Gibbs first exhibited their transformer in London in 1881.  They later exhibited the invention in Turin in 1884. They had tried to patent it in 1882 but failed because of a few related devices but mostly because of their arch nemesis Sebastian Pietro de Ferranti. Most sources claim/intimate that Ferranti "invented" the transformer in the process. Gaular and Gibb thought otherwise, but they lost in court. (Nonetheless it was the basis for the ZBD transformer.) Eventually the patent struggle drove Gaulard  insane. He died in an institution (Sainte-Anne Hospital) in Paris.

In reading the history now,  Ferranti's claim seems exaggerated. At that time Edison and Tesla were fighting it out AC vs. DC. We all know that AC won that fight, but at the time it wasn't clear to everyone. Ferranti bet on AC, as did Westinghouse and everybody that made that bet won big. But it appears that Ferranti got the credit not for being first, but for having the prettiest patent filing.

Ferranti was born in 1864. So he was in his early 20s as all this was ramping up. In his early teens he was a bit of a gear head experimenting with arc lights, and dynamos. Mr. de Ferranti designed a dynamo with William Thomson (aka Lord Kelvin) in old engineering text books they call it the "Ferranti Dynamo." He was supposedly 16 at the time so that would have been around 1880. He started work for Siemens in 1881. Remember the ZBD transformer was developed by 1885 so Ferranti has a small time window to figure this all out and get to court in time to piss off Gaulard and Gibbs.

This Ferranti Dynamo (or it's components) is largely what most history books are claiming is his transformer. Obviously dynamos are not transformers, but they do have some things in common... like those coils.  This wasn't his only widget in that era. He was also making alternators and armatures. All of them were metal bodies and wound copper coils. He took out a patent on his modifications to existing transformers in December of 1885: patent #15,141 "Improvements in Electrical Converters."  His transformer was made of iron strips laminated with paper on one side, bundled and shellacked. A cast iron frame supported the bundles. Cleverly he also patented his distribution system to set up transformers in groups or parallel mains. Because he got these two ideas on paper, we generally consider it the birth of the modern transformer. John Fleming wrote a comprehensive definition in 1897. I'll paraphrase for brevity:

1. When the primary circuit has its terminals connected to primary mains it should exhibit always a constant difference of potential between its secondary terminals, independent of the secondary load

2. There should be no waste of energy other than that due to the resistance of the conductors or circuits.

3. There should be perfect and permanent insulation between the primary and secondary coils and between both coils and the iron core.

4. There should be no sensible electrostatic capacity between the primary and secondary coils.

5. When the transformer has its secondary circuit open, no sensible current should flow through the primary circuit from the primary mains.

6. The loss of energy in transformation should be as small as possible at all loads.

Fleming described the ZBD transformer as a major improvement on Gaulard and Gibbs. But by 1885 Ferranti was off and patenting specialized transformers for telephony with Addenbrooke. It's important to note that Ferranti had a good lawyer. His lawyer recommended he set up private manufacture of his alternators to keep it out of the hands of Siemens. He later married his lawyers daughter and gained a very useful father-in-law. In 1886 he was appointed chief engineer for Sir Coutts Lindsay & Co. Flush with cash and backers he challenged the Gaulard and Gibbs patents in 1886.

The problem was that Gaulard and Gibbs papers and hardware had already made the rounds of the technical magazines. Most patent improvements in that time window start with Gaulard and Gibbs; not Ferranti. Westinghouse had bought half a dozen and shipped them to Pittsburgh. And crucially, William Stanley was in Brooklyn, NY, corresponding with Gaulard and making his own improvements...