Home-made Electrical Apparatus - Alfred Powell Morgan

COLE & MORGAN, Inc.

PREFACE

The purpose of this book is to aid the young experimenter in building and operating his own electrical apparatus and instruments. Every boy of now-a-days experiments with electricity and the right sort of book which furnishes him with ideas gets close to his heart. Of books upon electricity there is no end. That is granted. But there are very few practical books for the young experimenter who wishes to construct miscellaneous electrical apparatus for his own amusement and instruction which really amounts to something and which is worth his pains when the labor has been finished.

This book is therefore offered as a volume of instruction for making all sorts of batteries, rectifiers, motors, etc., which are entirely out of the toy class and yet are not so elaborate that they cannot be easily constructed at home by the average boy who is willing to put a little care into his work. The materials required are such that they can he procured without any great expense.

It has been planned to present the material in such a manner that it will aid the judgment of the young experimenter and assist him in developing his own ideas. Without exception, all of the apparatus described in the following pages has been actually constructed by the author, not only once but many times and put to a practical test before being embodied into the book. You may therefore be sure that if you follow the instructions carefully, that the result will in each case be a substantial piece of apparatus which is capable of fulfilling all of your expectations.

The drawings have all been reproduced on a large scale and in almost every case the dimensions of even the smallest details have been given. Some of the apparatus has been described in the pages of the "Boys’ Magazine" and since its publication the readers of that magazine have written to the author asking questions about the apparatus which have enabled him when rewriting the material for publication in book form to clear up many questions and further explain in a little more detail many of the problems which naturally occur to the boy who likes to build his own electrical devices.

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE …………………………………………………..
CHAPTER I. STATIC ELECTRICAL APPARATUS ……………………….
How to Build a Wimshurst Machine. ………………………….
Experiments with Static Electrical Apparatus. ……………….
CHAPTER II. CELLS AND BATTERIES. …………………………….
The Voltaic Cell. ………………………………………..
Homemade Batteries. ………………………………………
Battery Solutions or Electrolytes. …………………………
Connecting Cells. ………………………………………..
Storage or Secondary Cells. ……………………………….
An Experimental Storage Cell. ……………………………..
A Homemade Storage Cell. ………………………………….
Recharging and Caring for Storage Cells. ……………………
CHAPTER III. HOW TO REDUCE THE 110 V. D.C. OR A.C. TO A LOWER
VOLTAGE FOR EXPERIMENTAL PURPOSES. …………………………..
CHAPTER IV. HOW AN ALTERNATING CURRENT MAY BE CHANGED INTO DIRECT
CURRENT BY MEANS OF AN ELECTROLYTIC RECTIFIER. ………………..
CHAPTER V. HOW TO BUILD A STEP-DOWN TRANSFORMER FOR REDUCING THE 110
VOLT A. C. FOR EXPERIMENTAL PURPOSES. ………………………..
CHAPTER VI. ELECTRIC MEASURING INSTRUMENTS ……………………
Galvanometers, Ammeters, Voltmeters. How to Make a Galvanometer. .
The Construction of Ammeters and Voltmeters. ………………..
CHAPTER VII. CURRENT CONTROL DEVICES. ………………………..
How to Make a Pole Changing Switch or Current Reverses How to
Reverse a Small Motor. ……………………………………
How to Make a Small Battery Rheostat for Regulating the Speed of
Small Motors, Etc. ……………………………………….
CHAPTER VIII. HOW TO MAKE A TELEGRAPH KEY AND SOUNDER AND INSTALL A
TELEGRAPH LINE. ……………………………………………
CHAPTER IX. HOW TO MAKE AND INSTALL A TELEPHONE. ………………
CHAPTER X. MEDICAL COILS AND SHOCKING COILS. ………………….
CHAPTER XI. THE CONSTRUCTION OF SPARK COILS. ………………….
Experiment 1—An Imitation Gassiot’s Cascade. ………………..
Experiment 2—A Ghostly Light ………………………………
Experiment 3—Lighting Geissler Tubes. ………………………
Experiment 4—Flickering Light. …………………………….
Experiment 5—Rotating a Geissler Tube. ……………………..
Experiment 6—Fluorescent Writing. ………………………….
Experiment 7—An Electric Bomb. …………………………….
Experiment 8—Electrifying the Garbage Can. ………………….
Experiment 9—How to Make an Electric Spark Photograph Itself. …
CHAPTER XII. HOW TO MAKE A DYNAMO-MOTOR ………………………
CHAPTER XIII. AN ELECTRIC BATTERY MOTOR. ……………………..
CHAPTER XIV. HOW TO BUILD AN ELECTRIC ENGINE. …………………
CHAPTER XV. MINIATURE BATTERY LIGHTING. ………………………
CHAPTER XVI. COHERER OUTFITS FOR WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY. ………….
CHAPTER XVII. HOW TO BUILD A TESLA HIGH FREQUENCY COIL. ………..
CHAPTER XVIII. AN EXPERIMENTAL WIRELESS TELEPHONE. …………….
CHAPTER XIX. MISCELLANEOUS EXPERIMENTS AND APPARATUS. ………….
ELECTROLYSIS. ……………………………………………
ELECTROPLATING. ………………………………………….
ELECTRIC CURRENT GENERATED BY HEAT. ………………………..
A HANDY LIGHT. …………………………………………..
AN EXPERIMENTAL ARC LAMP. …………………………………
A MAGNETIC DIVER. ………………………………………..
THE MAGNETIC FISH. ……………………………………….
A MAGNETIC CLOWN. ………………………………………..
AN ELECTRIC BREEZE. ………………………………………
A STATIC MOTOR. ………………………………………….