Wind about twenty-five turns of No. 30 B. & S. gauge cotton-covered wire around the lower end of a glass tumbler. Leave about six inches of each end free for terminals, and then, after slipping the coil from the glass, tie the wire with thread in several places so that it will not unwind. Press two sides of the coil together so as to flatten it, and then attach it to a block of wood with some hot sealing-wax.
Make a little wooden bridge as shown in Figure 111, and mount a compass-needle on it in the center. The compass-needle may be made out of a piece of spring-steel in the manner already described in Chapter I.
Mount two binding-posts to the corners of the block, and connect the ends of the wire coil to them. Turn the block so that the needle points North and South and parallel to the coil of wire.
If a battery is connected to the binding-posts, the needle will fly around to a position at right angles to that which it first occupied.
An astatic galvanoscope is one having two needles with their poles in opposite directions. The word "astatic" means having no directive magnetic tendency. If the needles of an astatic pair are separated and pivoted separately, they will each point to North and South in the ordinary manner. But when connected together with the poles arranged in opposite directions they neutralize each other.
An astatic needle requires but very little current in order to turn it either one way or the other, and for this reason an astatic galvanoscope is usually very sensitive.
A simple instrument of this sort may be made by winding about fifty turns of No. 30-36 B. & S. gauge single-silk or cotton-insulated wire into a coil around a glass tumbler. After removing the coil from the glass, shape it into the form of an ellipse and fasten it to a small base-board.
Separate the strands of wire at the top of the coil so that they are divided into two groups.
Fig. 112.—Astatic Galvanoscope.