ON THE SPACE PROTECTED BY A LIGHTNING-CONDUCTOR.
By WILLIAM HENRY PREECE.
[Footnote: From the Philosophical Magazine for December, 1880.]
Any portion of non-conducting space disturbed by electricity is called an electric field. At every point of this field, if a small electrified body were placed there, there would be a certain resultant force experienced by it dependent upon the distribution of electricity producing the field. When we know the strength and direction of this resultant force, we know all the properties of the field, and we can express them numerically or delineate them graphically, Faraday (Exp. Res., § 3122 et seq.) showed how the distribution of the forces in any electric field can be graphically depicted by drawing lines (which he called lines of force) whose direction at every point coincides with the direction of the resultant force at that point; and Clerk-Maxwell (Camb. Phil. Trans., 1857) showed how the magnitude of the forces can be indicated by the way in which the lines of force are drawn. The magnitude of the resultant force at any point of the field is a function of the potential at that point; and this potential is measured by the work done in producing the field. The potential at any point is, in fact, measured by the work done in moving a unit of electricity from the point to an infinite distance. Indeed the resultant force at any point is directly proportional to the rate of fall of potential per unit length along the line of force passing through that point. If there be no fall of potential there can be no resultant force; hence if we take any surface in the field such that the potential is the same at every point of the surface, we have what is called an equipotential surface. The difference of potential between any two points is called an electromotive force. The lines of force are necessarily perpendicular to the surface. When the lines of force and the equipotential surfaces are straight, parallel, and equidistant, we have a uniform field. The intensity of the field is shown by the number of lines passing through unit area, and the rate of variation of potential by the number of equipotential surfaces cutting unit length of each line of force. Hence the distances separating the equipotential surfaces are a measure of the electromotive force present. Thus an electric field can be mapped or plotted out so that its properties can be indicated graphically.
Fig. 1
The air in an electric field is in a state of tension or strain; and this strain increases along the lines of force with the electromotive force producing it until a limit is reached, when a rent or split occurs in the air along the line of least resistance--which is disruptive discharge, or lightning.
Fig. 2