coherer

American  

[koh-heer-er, -her-] / koʊˈhɪər ər, -ˈhɛr- /

noun

1. a person or thing that coheres.

2. Radio. a device usually used in detecting radio waves, as a tube filled with a conducting substance in granular form, whose electrical resistance increases when struck by radio waves.

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coherer British  

/ kəʊˈhɪərə /

noun

1. physics an electrical component formerly used to detect radio waves, consisting of a tube containing loosely packed metal particles. The waves caused the particles to cohere, thereby changing the current through the circuit

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Etymology

Origin of coherer

First recorded in 1890–95; cohere + -er ¹

Example Sentences

A small wooden and metal instrument looks like the sort of thing used to tap out Morse code, but is an early example of a coherer, a device for detecting radio signals.

From Nature

This condition is so singuarly like that of a Branly or Lodge coherer as to suggest a further analogy.

From Project Gutenberg

The ends of the secondary circuit of this oscillation transformer are also connected to the terminals of the coherer tube, and these again are short-circuited by a small condenser.

From Project Gutenberg

These waves, on arriving at the receiving station, are caused to actuate a punching arrangement by the intermediation of a coherer or other kumascope, and to punch upon a uniformly moving strip of paper holes, which are at intervals of time corresponding to the intervals between the sparks at the transmitting station.

From Project Gutenberg

A suggestion to employ transformed oscillations in affecting a coherer, had also been described in a patent specification by Sir Oliver Lodge, in 1897, but the essence of success in the use of this device is not merely the employment of a transformer, but of a transformer constructed specially to transform electrical oscillations.

From Project Gutenberg