Letter to George F. Fitzgerald from Sir Oliver Lodge
Title
Letter to George F. Fitzgerald from Sir Oliver Lodge
Creator
Date
Identifier
GFF 2/41
Description
Handwritten letter from Sir Oliver Lodge, 21 Waverley Road, Liverpool, to George F. Fitzgerald, dated 1 January 1892. Lodge discusses an experiment involving rotating disks using an armature and wires. 2pp.
Transcription:
"M d Φ
Delighted to hear about your 106 per sec idea. Don't fully understand it. Don't want to. Don't tell folk but [p?] it at one.
I run my disks now at 3000 revs a minute, the armature is specially wound with that wire live to brace up its wires, and I should have no compunction in running it at 6000. It has run at 4 or 5 [?] I had it. It is a gramme ([?], Malter and Platt). Its diameter is I suppose 8" or 2 feet round, hence it has a peripheral velocity of 100 feet a second when running at 3000 so I feel sure that your 100 meters per sec is within reach. (The run of steel disks goes at 500 feet a second- but that's different.) Your high speed armature ought to be globular not cylindrical.
T=PV2 give the maximum velocity for a hoop (about ⊥ axis) of any substance whose tensity is T and density P.
I don't know about Fison and music. Must find out. What was the 2 [g?] for? I went up to the B. Sc. I forget what happened but is no matter. I can be up from evening 21st to 23rd and go to Rayleigh on 22 (RI). Hooray for old Thomson.
Λ"
Transcription:
"M d Φ
Delighted to hear about your 106 per sec idea. Don't fully understand it. Don't want to. Don't tell folk but [p?] it at one.
I run my disks now at 3000 revs a minute, the armature is specially wound with that wire live to brace up its wires, and I should have no compunction in running it at 6000. It has run at 4 or 5 [?] I had it. It is a gramme ([?], Malter and Platt). Its diameter is I suppose 8" or 2 feet round, hence it has a peripheral velocity of 100 feet a second when running at 3000 so I feel sure that your 100 meters per sec is within reach. (The run of steel disks goes at 500 feet a second- but that's different.) Your high speed armature ought to be globular not cylindrical.
T=PV2 give the maximum velocity for a hoop (about ⊥ axis) of any substance whose tensity is T and density P.
I don't know about Fison and music. Must find out. What was the 2 [g?] for? I went up to the B. Sc. I forget what happened but is no matter. I can be up from evening 21st to 23rd and go to Rayleigh on 22 (RI). Hooray for old Thomson.
Λ"
Source
RDS Library & Archives GFF collection of letters
Rights
Copyright RDS Library & Archives. Publication, transmission or display is prohibited without formal written approval of the RDS Library & Archives.
Relation
RDS Science Archive
Format
Manuscript
Language
English
Type
Coverage
1870-1901
Collection
Citation
Lodge, Oliver, Sir, 1851-1940, “Letter to George F. Fitzgerald from Sir Oliver Lodge,” RDS Digital Archive, accessed December 5, 2025, https://digitalarchive.rds.ie/items/show/1301.