Rotationen von Superschrauben in viskosen Lösungen. Modellversuche zur Entstehung der Transversalwellen an Geisseln und Protoplasmafibrillen

Superhelices arise by the tension of two or more intertwined helices with slightly different pitches. Super helices made of steel-wire which rotate in honey show either a rotation of the rigid helix (arrows R in Fig. 4b) a rotation under flexible deformation (arrows r in Fig. 4c) or a combination of these two kinds of rotation (arrows R and r in Fig. 4d). The number of the actual revolutions per second (r/sec) is much higher in the latter case than the number of revolutions of the superhelix (R/sec). The transverse waves appearing here (arrows S in Fig. 4d) show a retardation caused by the resistance forces of the medium and are similar in a striking manner to the transveral waves running along protoplasmic fibrils and flagella. Therefore the generation of these waves may be explained by the revolutions of flexible superhelices and some variability in their inner tension.

A periodic contact takes place of those particles which adhere at corresponding sites of the two intertwined helices ( p 1 − q 1 . p 2 − q 2 , in Fig. 5c) when the superhelix rotates under flexible deformation.