Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1897-06-02
A GREAT INVENTION.
IT IS TO CARRY ELECTRICITY WITH
OUT LOSS OF POWER.

1
Is, Until You Wake Up Again.
| 'I've got the greatest thing in the
world" remarked a prosperous looking
individual who walked into the office Of
one of the most prominent consulting
engineers and electricians in the coun-
try as an Express reporter was sitting
i'll the outer office.
| What is it?'' asked the engineer.
"I'n tell you," responded the pros
porous looking man. Its an inven-
| tion''-here the engineer began to look
bored, but he smiled politely and his
visitor continued-"a invention that
Will revolutiCnize the business of trans.
mitting electric power"
| Now if there is Cne thing that this
| particular engineer is more interested
i'll or knows more about than anything
| else, it is this same subject of the trans
mission of electric power. He began to
look little more interested and urged
his visitor to tell him what the scheme
was ard also to inform him what he
could DO for him.
"Well, before I describe the inven-
tion," said the prosperous man, 'I'll
covered way to transmit power with
absolutely ro less in transmission-ab-
so-lute-ly no loss. Do you realize what
| that r1ears:'
1T means you'll own the earth if
you've got it" remarked the engineer.
"Correct3' exclaimed the prosperous
man. "As you SO aptly put it, We'll
own the earth. You will notice do not
admit that there is any doubt about the
proposition. We knew what we have
get. We have seen it work. There's
millions in it!''
What tests have you made?''
TESTS? Why. my dear sir, we have
made the most exhaustive tests. We
have built IL mile of conduit, sir, and
the most delicate instruments fail to
detect the slightest less Of power i'll
transmission. Oh, there is 10 question
that the process works to perfection!
Now, what want you TO do is to give
Us your opinion on it. Study the sub
ject, give your opinion in writing, and
we'll pay ycu handsomely"
We'll, tell ME what your process is
and I'll SEQ what think OF it," said
the engineer. IF / think you have q
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 q conservative
man, sir. l wouldn't give q rap for the
opinion CT man who jumps ut conclu-
sions, sir. Now, I'll tell you what this
great invention consists Of. It's va
cuUIn-nothing but a vacuum. You
know ii vacuum is the most perfect in
sulation, don't you? Pu: a vacuum
around a wire ard the electricity can't
get away. Moisture can't get at the
wi-e. Air can't get ct it. Vacurm'l
keep the current on the wire, won't it,"
The engineer allowed that a vacuum,
if good one, might be OF value for in
suiating purposes.
We'll" continued the prosperous
looking man, I've just take this vaccu-
um idea and carry it to its ultimate
conclusion, understandable its last anal
ysis, so to speak. It's easy enough &c
..urround 4 wire with vacuum. All
you've got to do is to put the wire i'll n
tube and pump the air out of tube.
isn't it? Well, suppose you pump away
until you've got al the air out;
you've got ycur wire insulated, haven't
you? Can't lose any current, can you?
But that's all. You've get the resistance
of the wire to deal with, and that's
where you lose energy. That is where
our discovery Genes in. We know why
the resistance exists, AID from that it's
easy to learn how to cure it.
Take a copper wire. Copper's made
up of molecules, isn'tit? Molecules keep
vibrating all the time, don't they
never stay still, EevCr remain i'll con-
tact? You know all abGut that Well,
there must be something between those
molecules, then, isn't there? There is,
and that something is cir. That's what
the electricity don't like--can't PASS
through the air. Row, suppose You take
the air frCm out LetwCcn the molecules,
what happens: Molecules remain at rest
- stay ii contact. Electricity goes
through without .ny obstruction, and
there you arc-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.
II knew you'd say so," said the en-
thusiastic visitor. "Now, 1t only re-
mains to extract the air, ard that's
what we've dore-got an airpump
that'll pump all the air out from be-
tween the molecules of q copper wire.
We've done it-done it on a mile Of
wire, sir. Took mile and furlong to
cover a mile, because the wire shcrt-
ened up when the molecules crowded
together. That's what we've done, sir,
and 1 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 q 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. It
wouldn't do for me to tell 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.
The word despot originally meant
master or lord. At later period 1t be-
came an honorary title, bestowed by
the Greek emperors ON certain govern