The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1897-07-09

ana I'll see what l think or it, said
the engineer. IF I think you have
practicable thing. I'd like to see your
experimental line in operation.
"That's the way like to hear you
talk, sir; shows you are conservative
man, sir. wouldn't give rap for the
opinion of man who jumps at conclu-
sions, sir. Now, I'll tell you what this
great invention consists of. It's va
cuum-nothing but a vacuum. You
know vacuum is the most perfect in
sulation, don't you? Put vacuum
around wire and the electricity can't
get away. Moisture can't get at the
wire. Air can't get at it. Vacuum'll
keep the current on the wire, won't it?''
The engineer allowed that a vacuum,
if good one, might be of value for in
sulating purposes.
"Well," continued the prosperous
looking man, "we just take this vaccu-
um idea and carry it to it's ultimate
conclusion, understandable it's last anal
ysis, so to speak. It's easy enough to
surround wire with a vacuum. All
you've got to do is to put the wire in a
tube and pump the air out of tube,
isn't it? Well, suppose you pump away
until you've got all the air out;
you've got your wire insulated, haven't
you? Can't lose any current, can you?
But that's all. You've got the resistance
of the wire to deal with, and that's
where you lose energy. That is where
our discovery comes in. We know why
the resistance exists, and from that it's
easy to learn how to cure it.
flake copper wire. Copper's made
up of molecules, ism it? Molecules keep
vibrating all the time, don't they
never stay still, never remain in con-
tact? You know all about that. Well,
there must be something between those
molecules, then, isn't there2 There is,
and that something is air. That's what
the electricity don't ike-can't pass
through the air. Now, suppose you take
the air from out between the molecules,
what happens? Molecules remain at rest
- stay in contact. Electricity goes
through without any obstruction, and
there you are-no loss of current at all.
Logical, isn't it?''
The engineer was getting faint, but
he found voice enough to admit that the
theory was certainly ingenious.
81 knew you'd say so," said the en-
thusiastic visitor "Now, it only re-
mains to extract the air, and that's
what we've done-got an airpump
that IL pump all the air out from be-
tween the molecules of copper wire.
We've done it-done it on mile of
wire, sir. Took mile and furlong to
cover mile, because the wire short
ened up when the molecules crowded
together. That's what we've done, sir,
and I think you'll agree with me that
we've got the greatest invention of the
ages, won't your
The engineer gasped for breath and
then automatically told the stranger
that he would do little figuring in the
scheme to see how much money it would
save in year and send report in writ
ing on the merits of the project AS
the visitor bowed himself out the en-
gineer turned to The Express reporter
and remarked:
did you get on to that? That's only
a sample. If there's one crank comes to
my office in day, there are a dozen.
Every one is crazy on electricity, and
they all think they have invented the
very thing that Edison and Tesla and
all the rest have failed to obtain. 1t
wouldn't do for me to tell a. man like
that there was nothing in his wild prof.
ect of pumping air out of the interstices
between the molecules of a copper wire.
He simply wouldn't have believed me
and would have spent hours trying to
demonstrate that his invention was
practical Buffalo Express.