valuable series of experiments on this subject. He found that if a magnetized steel needle or a very small bundle of extremely thin iron wires is magnetized and placed in the interior of a small coil, the ends of which are connected to two long collecting wires, then an electric wave started from a Hertz oscillator at a distance causes an immediate demagnetization of the iron. This demagnetization he detected by means of the movement of the needle of a magnetometer placed near one end of the iron wire. Although Rutherford's wave detector has been much used in scientific research, it was not, in the form in which he used it, a telegraphic instrument, and could not record alphabetic signals.
Not long ago Mr. Marconi invented, however, a telegraphic instrument based upon his discovery that the magnetic hysteresis of iron can be annulled by electric oscillations. In one form, Mr. Marconi's magnetic receiver is constructed as follows[1] (see Fig. 18): An endless band of thin iron wire composed of several iron wires
- ↑ See Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond., June 12, 1902. 'Note on a Magnetic Detector for Electric Waves which can be employed as a Receiver for Space Telegraphy,' by G. Marconi.