File:EB1911 Telegraph - electric wave detector using electrolytic cell.jpg

English: A class of electromagnetic wave detector depends upon the power of electric oscillations to annul the electrolytic polarization of electrodes of small surface immersed in an electrolyte. If in a vessel of nitric acid are placed a large platinum plate and a platinum electrode of very small surface such as that produced when an extremely fine platinum wire is slightly immersed in the liquid, and if a current from a single voltaic cell is passed through the electrolytic cell so that the fine wire is the anode or positive pole, then the small surface will be polarized or covered with a film of gas due to electrolysis (see figure). This increases the resistance of the electrolytic cell. If, however, one electrode of this cell is connected to the earth and the other to a receiving antenna and electric waves allowed to fall on the antenna, the oscillations passing through the electrolytic cell will remove the polarization and temporarily decrease the resistance of the cell. This may be detected by putting a telephone in series with the electrolytic cell, and then on the impact of the electric waves a sound is heard in the telephone due to the sudden increase in the current through it.