noun
definition
A sensitive device for detecting and measuring the energy of electromagnetic radiation.
Examples of bolometer in a Sentence
One form such a detector takes is the bolometer.
Such a bolometer receiver has been used by C. Tissot (Comptes rendus, 1904, 137, p. 846) and others as a receiver in electric wave telegraphy.
The imperfections of the thermopile, with which he began his work, led him, about 1880, to the invention of the bolometer, an instrument of extraordinary delicacy, which in its most refined form is believed to be capable of detecting a change of temperature amounting to less than one-hundred-millionth of a degree Centigrade.
In addition, taking advantage of the accuracy with which the bolometer can determine the position of a source of heat by which it is affected, he mapped out in this infra-red spectrum over 700 dark lines or bands resembling the Fraunhofer lines of the visible spectrum, with a probable accuracy equal to that of refined astronomical observations.
In the opinion of the writer the latter instrument will ultimately replace the bolometer, its only disadvantage being that the radiations have to traverse the side of a vessel, and are therefore subject to absorption.
In order to record line spectra it is by no means necessary that the receiving instrument (bolometer or radiometer) should be linear in shape, for the separation of adjacent lines may be obtained if the linear receiver be replaced by a narrow slit in a screen placed at the focus of the condensing lens.
P. Langley in 18 93 at Mount Whitney in California (14,000 ft.), with the bolometer, an exceedingly sensitive instrument which he invented, and which enabled him to feel his way thermally over the whole spectrum, noting all the Constant.
The infra-red requires special appliances; it has been examined visually by the help of phosphorescent plates (Becquerel), and with special photographic plates (Abney); but the most efficient way is to use the bolometer or radiomicrometer; by this means some 500 or 600 lines have been mapped.
There is, however, still room for improved determinations of the moon's heat by the use of the bolometer in its latest form.
An optical telescope is used with a special detector called a bolometer placed at its focus.