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Re: inertia of 'electron stuff'



At 09:16 8/4/97 -0700, Leigh wrote:
... you must have heard of Rowland's ring?
...
Leigh

Although the conventional description ( and construction )
of Rowland's spectrometer now places the slit, the mirror and the plate on
the perimeter of a circle, his mount was actually more interesting.

He used two tracks at right angles, meeting at a point where the slit was
mounted. The plate and mirror rode on opposite ends of a carriage whose
rollers each ran on one of the orthogonal rails.

The description of the locus of a point which makes a constant angle to a
base line is of course the eponymous circle - but in his design, it was the
diameter that rotated.
The spectral range available was restricted, but the plate was easily
moved to a wavelength of interest.

He apparently refined the value of the ohm, and the mechanical equivalent
of heat. He demonstrated that a moving charge has similar magnetic
properties to a current carrying wire, and made and sold fine gratings
internationally.

I certainly did not intend to injure anyone's patriotic amour propre
in this respect.

Regards
brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK