CHAPTER III.
ON ELECTRIC BELLS AND OTHER SIGNALLING APPLIANCES.
§ 41. An electric bell is an arrangement of a cylindrical soft iron core, or cores, surrounded by coils of insulated copper wire. On causing a current of electricity to flow round these coils, the iron becomes, for the time being, powerfully magnetic (see [§ 13]). A piece of soft iron (known as the armature), supported by a spring, faces the magnet thus produced. This armature carries at its free extremity a rod with a bob, clapper or hammer, which strikes a bell, or gong, when the armature, under the influence of the pull of the magnet, is drawn towards it. In connection with the armature and clapper is a device whereby the flow of the current can be rapidly interrupted, so that on the cessation of the current the iron may lose its magnetism, and allow the spring to withdraw the clapper from against the bell. This device is known as the "contact breaker" and varies somewhat in design, according to whether the bell belongs to the trembling, the single stroke, or the continuous ringing class.
§ 42. In order that the electric bell-fitter may have an
intelligent conception of his work, he should make a small electric bell himself. By so doing, he will gain more practical knowledge of what are the requisites of a good bell, and where defects may be expected in any he may be called upon to purchase or examine, than he can obtain from pages of written description. For this reason I reproduce here (with some trifling additions and modifications) Mr. G. Edwinson's directions for making an electric bell:—[10]
How to make a bell.—The old method of doing this was to take a piece of round iron, bend it into the form of a horse-shoe, anneal it (by leaving it for several hours in a bright fire, and allowing it to cool gradually as the fire goes out), wind on the wire, and fix it as a magnet on a stout board of beech or mahogany; a bell was then screwed to another part of the board, a piece of brass holding the hammer and spring being fastened to another part. Many bells made upon this plan are still offered for sale and exchange, but their performance is always liable to variation and obstruction, from the following causes:—To insure a steady, uniform vibratory stroke on the bell, its hammer must be nicely adjusted to move within a strictly defined and limited space; the least fractional departure from this adjustment results in an unsatisfactory performance of the hammer, and often a total failure of the magnet to move it. In bells constructed on the old plan, the wooden base is liable to expansion and contraction, varying with the change of weather and the humidity, temperature, etc., of the room
in which the bells are placed. Thus a damp, foggy night may cause the wood to swell and place the hammer out of range of the bell, while a dry, hot day may alter the adjustment in the opposite direction. Such failures as these, from the above causes alone, have often brought electric bells into disrepute. Best made bells are, therefore, now made with metallic (practically inexpansible) bases, and it is this kind I recommend to my readers.
Fig. 17.