INOSATION.

Shannon News, 20 December 1927, Page 2

INOSATION.

lonisation in a term that, wo hear a great deal of in connection with radio. In fact, it was due to this phenomenon that ideas were formed which led to the discovery of the vacuum tube, 21 years ago, a piece of electrical apparatus with which every modern home is supplied. In a “soft" detector tube, as the plate voltage is increased the plate current will increase according to definite laws governing the actipn of vacuum tubes. At a relatively low plate ' voltage the plate current tvill suddenly jump to an extremely abnormal value, due, as it is said, to “ionisation" within the tube. lonisation is the breaking up of the- normal gas atom into two parts, a free electron and a positively charged nucleus. These positive charges tend to neutralise the “space charge," hence they have the same effect as a positive grid.