RADIO AND ELECTRICITY

Evening Star, Issue 21630, 27 January 1934, Page 4

RADIO AND ELECTRICITY

Radio cannot be said to have contributed anything vital to the fundamental knowledge of electricity, as the electron theory, that lifted knowledge of electricity from a hazy plane to one of sense and understanding, was known long before radio became practical. At present other aspects of electricity are yielding to human research, and one may expect some new divisibility. Knowledge of electricity is still in a formative state, though much advanced over, that of half a century ago, when pupils were taught that electricity wa'a fluid because it flowed through a circuit. Now we know that electricity :s the phenomenon of electron action, ami that the electron, or negative particle, is in a state of orbital motion. Thus the old idea of flow of electricity )s supplanted by the realisation of ' the bombardment of a’toms and the drift of electrons.

These electrons are agitated by electromotive force—i.c., voltage—and the intensity of the bombardment, the constitution of flic mass, and other con-siderations-’affect the net drift. The electron theory cannot he regarded as a theory 7 any more. Radio is a branch of physics, as is electricity, but physical branches intertwine so much that demarcation is not so easy. Radio’s groat contribution may be regarded ts one toward the means of using electricity, rather than vital contribution to the understanding of electricity. The phenomenon of tuning was derived exclusively 7 from radio, though now used in various brandies of electrical work. The vacuum tube still remains the supreme radio contribution to electrical use. These matters are largely 7 ones of oum'ou. hence debatable. A bookmaker who was ill sent his small son to ask a certain doctor to call. A different physician having arrived, (he bookmaker afterwards asked his son to explain. 11 Well, yon see, dad,” ho said, “ there were a lot of brass plates on the doors, and when I got to the number yon gave me I saw ‘ Consultations 11 to 12.’ The chap next door was offering ' Consultations, 10 to I,’ and I knew you’d like the one that gave the best odds.”