IMPROVEMENTS IN GENERATING STATIC ELECTRICITY
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Samuel Alfred Varley at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
31st October 1868.
I, SAMUEL ALPRED VARLEY, of the Firm of Cornelius and Samuel
Alfred Varley, 66, Roman Road, Holloway, in the County of Middlesex,
Telegraph Engineers and Contractors, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN GENERATING STATIC ELECTRICITY,"
to be as follows:-
When glass tubes or cylinders are used for the development of static
electricity, owing to the hygrometric character of glass, the surface
begomes humid from the condensation of moisture in the atmosphere,
and in consequence of moisture, condensed more particularly on the
inner surface, glass is much less readily excited than sulphur, ebonite, or
resinous cements.
My improvement consists in so treating glass tubes or cylinders as to
prevent the condensation of moisture on the inner surface, and also in
so constructing them is to obtain a much greater exciting surface in a
given space than with the ordinary construction of frictional electrical

page_text: machines. I construct my electrical machine when I want to develope
large quantities of electricity of a series of glass tubes. Into these tubes
I pour hot melting cement, which I prefer to consist of 32 parts
Stockholm pitch, 16 parts black resin, and 4 parts of beeswax, but I do
not confine myself to these proportions or to resinous cement, the object
desired being to coat the inner surface of the glass with an electric
which does not attract moisture and sulpher, or paraffine may in some
cases be substituted for the cement above described. These tubes are
mounted on bearings and arranged in one plane and are made to revolve
by means of a band passing round pulleys attached to the glass tubes
and driven by a multiplying wheel or by any other suitable means.
Rubbers coated with amalgam similar to those used for the ordinary
frictional clectrical machine pressed against the one side of the revolving
glass tubes, and collecting points in metallic connection with an insulated
conductor are arranged on the opposite side over the glass tubes. These
glass tubes, owing to their not accumulating moisture on the inner side,
are readily excited in all conditions of the atmosphere, and owing to the
large surface which comes in contact with the rubber electricity in great
quantities is generated. I treat the inner surface of my Leyden jars with
melting cement in a similar way to that above described in the con-
struction of the machine for generating electricity, and to obtain greater
surface in a given space I construct my Leyden jars of a number of glass
tubes arranged side by side and hermetically sealed at one end; these
I place in a box and connect all the inner surfaces together by metallic
connections, the outer surfaces are also connected together by metallic
connections. Two metallic conductors, one connected with the inner
surface of the Leyden jars and one connected with the outer are brought
out of the box, the box is then filled up with melting paraffine or
resinous cement similar to that before described. When I do not require
electricity in such large quantities I employ a single glass tube which
may be hermetically sealed at one end, into this tube I pour hot melting
cement, consisting of pitch, rosin, and beeswax, sulphur or paraffine, as
before described. I construct the prime conductor of the machine of a
Leyden jar, the rubber consists simply of a piece of leather or woollen
cloth on which is placed a small quantity of amalgam. When using
this machine the hermetically sealed glass tube is held in the right
hand and passed through a collecting ring connected to the inner surface
of the Leyden jar which is held in the left hand, the leather rubber is

page_text: grasped round the glass tube by the fingers of the hand holding the
Leyden jar. The glass tube is then moved briskly backwards and
forwards longitudinally, and electricity is generated and collected in the
Leyden jar.