electronic apparatus for biological research

758 Pages·2012·23.45 MB·English

ELECTRONIC APPARATUS FOR
BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH
ELECTRONIC APPARATUS
FOR
BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH
P. E. K. DONALDSON, M.A.
with contributions by
J. W. L. Beament, M.A., Ph.D.
F. W. Campbell, M.A.
D. W. Kennard, M,B., B,S" M,R.C.S., L.R.C,P" Ph.D.
R. D, Keynes, M,A., Ph.D.
K, E. Machin, M.A., Ph.D., A.M.I.E.E.
I. A. Silver, M.A., Ph.D., M.R.C.V.S.
LONDON
BUTfERWORTHS SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS
ELECTRONIC APPARATUS
FOR
BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH
P. E. K. DONALDSON, M.A.
with contributions by
J. W. L. Beament, M.A., Ph.D.
F. W. Campbell, M.A.
D. W. Kennard, M.B., B.S., M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., Ph.D.
R. D. Keynes, M.A., Ph.D.
K. E. Machin, M.A., Ph.D., A.M.I.E.E.
1. A. Silver, M.A., Ph.D., M.R.C.V.s.
LONDON
BUTTERWORTHS SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS
1958
BUTIERWORTHS PUBLICATIONS LTD
88 KINGSWAY, LONDON. W.C.2
AFRICA: BUTTERWORTH & CO. (AFRICA) LTD
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U.S.A. Edition puhllshed by
ACADEMIC PRESS INC .. PUBLISHERS
111 FIFTH AVENUE
NEW YORK 3. NEW YORK
Fjrst Published 1958
Second Impression 1959
Third Impression 1961
The Author and Contributors named on the title page
1958
Printed In Northern Ireland at The Universities Press, Belfast
CONTENTS
Page
Foreword ix
Preface xi
PART I: THEORY·
INTRODUCTION 3
2 RESISTANCES 6
3 RESISTANCES AND CAPACITANCES 25
4 INDUCTANCES AND RESISTANCES 54
5 INDUCTANCES, CAPACITANCES AND RESISTANCES 72
6 DIODE CIRCUITS 96
7 SOFT VALVES lIB
8 HARD VALVES 132
9 INTERSTAGE COUPLING 149
10 DIFFICULTIES WITH SINGLE-SIDED AMPLIFIERS 159
11 NEGATIVE VOLTAGE FEEDBACK AND THE STABILIZED GAIN AMPLIFIER ] 64
12 DOUBLE-SIDED AMPLIFIERS 176
13 TUNED AMPLIFIERS 196
14 SINE WAVE OSCILLATORS 208
15 SQUARE WAVE OSCILLATORS 226
/f6
TRIGGERED PULSE GENERATORS 235
17 NOISE 253
18 THE CATHODALLY SCREENED CATHODE FOLLOWER 259
GRAPHS 263
v
CONTENTS
PART II: PRACTICE
[9 BATTERIES 283
20 RESISTORS 291
21 CAPACITORS 297
22 CHOKES AND TRANSFORMERS 305
23 NON-THERMIONIC DIODES 315
24 VALVES 319
321
~ SUNDRIES
26 FORMS OF MECHANICAL CONSTRUCTION 327
27 TOOLS AND WORKSHOP FACILITIES 329
PART III: TRANSDUCERS, ELECTRODES AND INDICATORS
28 LIGHT SOURCES AND DETECTORS 333
F. W. Campbell
:29 MEASUREMENT AND CONTROL OF TEMPERATURE 383
J. W. L. Beament
30 MEASUREMENT AND CONTROL OF HUMIDITY 413
J. W. L. Beament
31 ASSAY OF RADIOACTIVITY 419
R. D. Keynes
32 VISUAL INDICATORS 446
P. B. K. Donaldson
33 TRANSDUCERS 471
K. E. Machin
34 RELAYS AND RELATED MECHANISMS 510
K. E. Machin
35 GLASS MICROCAPILLARY ELECTRODES USED FOR MEASURING 534
POTENTIAL IN LIVING TISSUES
D. W. Kennard
36 OTll.BR ELECTRODES 568
I. A. Silver
vi
CONTENTS
PART IV: COMPLETE APPARATUS
37 POWER PACKS 585
38 STIMULATORS 602
39 BIOLOGICAL AMPLIFIERS 616
40 METHODS OF RECORDING 638
41 TIMERS, COUNTERS AND RArE MEASUREMENT 643
42 LA YOUT AND THE CONTROL OF INTERFERENCE 656
43 FAULTS 665
44 DESIGN PROCEDURE 671
45 TRANSISTORS 677
Index 711
vii

FOREWORD
This book will, I hope, prove a valuable technical handbook for those
engaged in the use of electronic techniques in biology. I think its
significance and value should be much more than as a guide to tech
nique. It is easy for users of elaborate techniques to come to regard
them as tools they need not bother to understand, and the reliability
of modern apparatus is such as to encourage this attitude; it is, however,
a disastrous one for a scientist who interprets the results obtained and
who must be the master and not the slave of bis technology. This
book enables him to remain master despite complex techniques.
For over 25 years research students who have come to Cambridge
to learn electrophysiology have been made to construct with their
own hands elementary biological electronic apparatus before being
allowed to work with ready~made recording systems. Even those who
at the time slightly resented being returned to the electronic kinder
garten, thought it in retrospect invaluable to have mastered the details,
though experts were available to manage the apparatus thereafter.
The present book carries on this tradition and enables a biologist to
understand the basis, and thus the capabilities and limitations, of the
methods available to him.
Donaldson, working and writing in a laboratory which has been
a main centre of electrophysiology for 50 years and in the forefront
of the biological use of electronic devices for more than 30, has presented
not only a compendium of the formal bones of these techniques, but
also incorporated many of those little points of know~how that come
from long practical experience.
I think this book will be valuable both to the beginner entering this
field and also to the more experienced, for its comprehensiveness
makes it a reference work of electronics in biology.
BRYAN MATTHEWS
Physiological Laboratory,
Cambridge
ix