Effect of Light on the Electric Conductivity of Selenium

Abstract

IT is of course impossible not to feel intense interest in the statement (NATURE, vol. vii. p. 303) which Mr. Willoughby Smith makes and which Mr. Latimer Clark endorses. That I have been unable to obtain the same result has doubtless been due to my having worked under conditions different from those existing in Mr. Smith's experiments. My failure has not been one of degree, but has been absolute. I have not only been unable to find that light increases the electric conductivity of selenium, but I have failed to get a current through selenium at all, even through a thickness of 0.1 millimetre. As I do not know how to put myself at once in direct communication with Mr. Smith, perhaps you will permit me to ask him through your columns to guide me on the following points:—