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The Telephone

Abstract

AFTER reading the experiments of Prof. Forbes on the telephone, in NATURE, vol. xvii. p. 343, it occurred to me, as probably it has done to others, that this instrument might be employed in comparing the electrical resistances of wires. Accordingly, two weak cells were connected with the ordinary form of Wheatstone's bridge, and the telephone placed in the position usually occupied by the galvanometer. The current was rendered intermittent by a small electromagnetic apparatus belonging to an electric bell; the bell itself having been detached, the intermitter was placed in a separate room, and connected by long wires with the battery and bridge. The German silver wire of the bridge, having a resistance of 2 ohms, was further lengthened at each end by resistance coils of ten ohms, and it was found that with a little practice one could easily compare two resistances of about two ohms within at least 1,000th of the true ratio.

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TOMLINSON, H. The Telephone. Nature 17, 380 (1878). https://doi.org/10.1038/017380a0

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