Wheatstone
(ˈhwiːtstən)
[Called after Sir Charles Wheatstone, who in 1843 brought into notice the ‘differential arrangement’ apparatus, which had been invented by S. Hunter Christie in 1833.]
a. In full, Wheatstone('s) bridge: a simple circuit for measuring a resistance by connecting it so as to form a quadrilateral with three known resistances and applying a voltage between a pair of opposite corners: a galvanometer connected between the other two corners registers no current when the ratios of the two pairs of adjacent resistances are equal.
| 1872 Jrnl. Soc. Telegr. Eng. 8 May 196 A Differential Resistance Measurer,—or, as it is commonly called, a ‘Wheatstone's Bridge’. 1885 Watson & Burbury Math. Th. Electr. I. 221 The principle of the instrument known as Wheatstone's Bridge. 1901 Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A. CXCVI. 29 The two grids A and A{p} formed two arms of a Wheatstone bridge. 1953 A. Smith Blind White Fish in Persia i. 25 He had with him..a Wheatstone's bridge—a gadget of complex appearance for measuring the electrical resistance of the soil. 1979 E. N. Lurch Electric Circuit Fundamentals ix. 296 The Wheatstone bridge..is the elementary bridge circuit that is the prototype of all the more complex bridges used in electric circuit analysis. |
b. Used in the possessive, attrib., and absol. to denote forms of electric telegraph invented by Wheatstone.
| 1858 Faraday in Notices of Proc. R. Inst. II. 555 (heading) On Wheatstone's electric telegraph in relation to science. 1881 Ibid. IX. 302, I found that one of our Wheatstone instruments was actually working at the rate of 180 or 190 words a minute. 1898 Daily News 21 May 7/4 The clicking of the needles, the tapping of the Wheatstones. 1922 Glazebrook Dict. Appl. Physics II. 788/2 Wheatstone simplex circuits are used extensively for the transmission of press telegrams to all parts of Great Britain. 1949 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. XL. 37 A Wheatstone transmitter was driven at 6 and 14 words a minute by a variable speed gear. |