The Savannah morning news., 1902-01-26
HEWITT ELECTRIC LIGHT.
Curry AND INCANDEsCENT
ELECTRIC CURRENT.

Eight Times as Effective as the
Carbon FiIament Light Ordinarily
Used, Three Times as Powerful as
the Arc Ltght-Cheapness and Ef-
fectiveness should Make 1t
Universal Boon-The Inventor Is n
Millionaire. "a Grandson of Peter
Cooper, and Works in the Queer
est Laboratory Imaginable.
New York, Jan. 24-Once in a while
it is given to the sons of the rich to
ride out of the ranks and to distinguish
themselves in the field of might. Quite
recently it was young Vanderbilt in
venting a locomotive. Just now it is
Cooper Hewitt, giving the world a new
light. His case is even more spectacu-
lar than that of Vanderbilt, for the eff
fects of his invention will be more far
reaching.
The interest invoked by such a man
cannot be less than that inspired by
the far-raching effects of his work.
And to gauge the latter let it be said
that he has succeeded in field in
which our best scientists have as yet
produced nothing.
1t is now more than four years since
Peter Cooper Hewitt began his ex-
periments in Madison Square Garden.
He opened his laboratory in the tower
of the Garden, just one door under the
gilded statue of Diana. The very
prominence of the situation lent it
certain obscurity. He wished not to
be disturbed and no one would think
of looking for the workshop of a
scientist in the same building that
harbored horse shows, cycle meets and
spectacle plays. He labored with
that chimera which sooner or later
claims the attention of all scientific
men-the production of light without
heat. He studied the work of Tesla.
of Edison, of Crookes. He followed
their lead and having tested their
experiments he soon made up his mind
that they had not reached the utter
most limits of this department of
electrical research. He was young
and time was no object. He had
abundant means, SO money did not
count. Occasionally the societies heard
of him when he told of certain
progress he had made. To his friends
he Was a promising young scientist,
who might do something some day.
Generally speaking, however, the pub
lie heard little of the young inventor
in the tower.
The some day" came with the new
year. On the evening of Friday, the
Srd of January, passersby in front of
the meeting hall of the New York
Society of Mechanical Engineers saw
| xxYhn IN ho q nf
light extending up and down the house
front. The light came from "a glass
tube and it made the street nearly az
light as day for hundred feet in
every direction. 1t was the invention
of young Peter Cooper Hewitt. The
meeting hall of the building was
lighted by four other tubes similar to
the one in front and the inventor was
even then within explaining to the
society members the nature of his
discovery. The four tubes which hung
in the hall illuminated it with bril-
fancy equal to 500 candle power, and
photographs of the assembled MEM
bers were taken with the new light.
| The Hewitt lamp, however, is so
| thoroughly adapted to present day
| conditions that no special wiring is re-
| quifed, no special dynamo is necessary
to operate it. 1t may be attached to
-
use and it will glow as readily as an
Edison lamp, only with many times the
brilliancy. And yet the perfected lamp
is such a simple affair that one Won
ders some of the brainy men of the
scientific world have not hit upon
the idea long ago. 1t is actually a fact
that many of them not only expert
mented with this style of lamp, but
even tried lamps of the very size, shape
1N.I &c 0f those
Hewitt, and failing to produce the de-
sired effect, discarded the idea as i'm
possible The lamps used by Mr. Hew-
lit are in the shape of glass tubes. from
one to ten feet long and form one to
four inches thick. There is small
amount of mercury in each tube, and
the current acting on the mercury gen.
crates a gas which yields an intense
white light. 1t is only necessary to at
tach a tube to an ordinary incandes-
cent lamp circuit and it will light up
Mr.. Hewitt encountered the same diff
cultieS as the other scientists. me
tubes would not light up at first. But
he thought there must be some under
living principle could he but discover 1T
would solve the difficulty. He finally
put it to the test of mathematics and
worked it out alphabetically just as
Prof Pupin worked out the principles
years, but the result was triumph for
the tube lighted up in the end.
A first visitor to the tower is sur
prised by two things; the intense sclen-
tific order that prevails and the bril-
liancy of the illumination. One of the
tubes projects outward from the wall
and you notice that it has a green tint.
Looking from the window far over to-
ward Broadway, the houses and the
streets and the atmosphere appear red
dish in hue. That is due to the color
of the particular lamp which is light
ed Some one turns it off and you De-
gin to see things from your accustomed
view point or rather hue point. Mr..
Hewitt comes forward. He is well IA
vored physically, and one would say
about thirty five years of age. In reply
to your questions he plunges at once
into the subject of vacuum lamps, but
his attitude is more reticent than en-
thusiastic.
"This lamp" said the inventor, point
ing to a u shaped tube, which hung py
a. string from the ceiling, lis not a
vacuum lamp in the sense that there Is
nothing in 1t. The air has been almost
exhausted but there Is as you may see
some mercury in the lower end OF the
tube. IT would not be possible to send
a. current of electricity through COM
pact vacuum. Something must be LETT
To conduct the current In this case IL
is mercury vapor. All substances may
be rendered into a gaseous state IL
brought under the influence Of more or
less heat and when we try to pass a
current through that tube, enough neat
is generated to create Vapor or gas