New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-02-21
WAVES OF GREAT POWER.
NEW DEVICE DESCRIBED.
Mr.. Hesoitt after Tests VII Pit
HIS Intention on the Market.

HIS intention on the Market.
Peter Cooper Hewitt said yesterday that his new
6esice in connection with wireless telegraphy would
ce placed the market. as he had no idea OF en-
sering the field of wireless operators. He added
that he had not taken out any patents yet except
the mercury vaper lamp.
The new device is expected 10 overcome great
Sifhculty which has been experienced IN sehuli'S
messages especially long distance. as across 'he
ocean. The difficulty has lain in the TREMENDOUS
power required.
-sr 8evi.t,s invention has not been used in
sending messages but he expects to apply it In a
test very soon.
Secrecy in transmission Is made easier by MI
Hew-itt's device, it is said.
BY every one who is interested III eiectfi0ai -
ences the announcement made yesterday concerning
peter ceoner FIeHitts latest invention was received
with much enthusiasm. Although most luily ap-
rreciaied by experts its principle is easily unoeI-
stood.
The ether waves which radiated sideways
from the upright wire. antenna, in wireless
feiegraphy produced by first exciting III ti4"t
wire impulses which cscillate lengthwise with great
rapidity and violence. Hitherto Marconi and other
,nyeptors have followed the method employed oE
Hertz for this purpose. The electric current nav
,ne been raised 10 an exceedingly high voltage ey
means which need not be considered was lea 10
.un,c across an air gap from one brass knob TO
another. Air is had conductor. and oners sfeat
resistance Thus the flow was alternately stopper
and restored with frequency. as was atfestea pN
aavr s< noisy sparks The effect of overcoming the
air barrier was to create the required oscillations
81 me- allie objects connected as was the upright
ware ,aifh one SIDE of the air SAP Nnat MI
Hewitt has done is 10 devise another melhou ol
snterrilpting the current
tn. annsratus closely resembles his mercury
,apor lamp Of which it is an outgroNth- Inc chiei
,siffereaee is one of form For the lamp long,
sai-ht alright tube is employed tor me ~
ser,aIpter a hollow globe proves more convenient
This too is alright At two points preieraniy on
the under side, wires are sealed INTO the sia9' 80
as 10 lead the current in by one route ana cuI
f,- 7no+ber The inner ends terminate in cups, or
tubes containing a small quantity OF mercury "A
lille of this vaporizes when the electricity flows
So much Tor the general arrangement OF the aP-
psratus-
The inre-rllpter works a principle discovered
M. Hewitt. The negative terminal of his sys-
:. q offers very great resistance at first but when
7te pressure. or voltage. is brought to given
pom; it Yields abruptly. II the flow stops, though
this original resistance returns instantly Just as
much energy is needed to overcome it the second
time as the first. According to The Electrical
Review the interrupter has been run at an esti-
mated frequency of a million oscillations sec
end The emitted waves. of course, have the same
ffea sncy- Many attempts have been made 10 ue-
wise ;nterrupters that would work as fast as us'
mi notl7inC except the air gap has given satlS-
z,-,,rv results The speed here indicated is about
that employed at Cape Cod and Glace Bay mas
much as il appears be susceptible oil ud''o'
II admits of tuning which is desl.ap'F ioi
secrecy and which consists of so 'nodlfYlng the
receiving apparatus that it will be more sensltlse
xs-es of the same frequency as those VI '4e
sending STATEN than to any other
1'HE. INTERRUPTER's ADVANTAGES.
The new interruPter possesses number OF aa-
vantages. One is its neiselessness- This virtue
viii Re appreciated better when recalls the
fact that the Cape Cod plant Of the Marconl
company, when in OPP ton, makes racket IKE
"a battery of artillery he air gap on small
.cale. gives snap. II -ound is correspondlngly
marnihed wnery Iarge currents and high voltages
handled
- The most important merit, though, seems 20 be
the enduring character of the excited by the
E/new method. Professor Pupin of Columbia Uni
Sersity, one Of The foremost authorities in such
matters, says in The Electrical Review:
it is perfectly evident to-day that wireless
telearaphy will NOT make any essential pf fSTg
very powerful and persistent electrical waves.
They be powerful IN order TO overcome DIS
employ the methods of selective tuning The
Cooper Hewitt mercury nterrupter is capable OF
furnishing just such kim Of electrical waves ana
there is other interrupter which comes any
where near it in this respect 40 not th INK dnat
tritution which this Development will make TO
which has been made since Marcons earliest ex-
perirnents which demonstrated the practice bllity
a distance of over twenty miles by employing
two upright wires each grounded and impresslng
the sending wire electrical oscillations such as
Hertz employed his classical experiments
The early experiments by Mr.. Mareoni were a
revelation physicists, not because they contained
any physical novelty. but because they demon
strated that by certain arrangement OF receiving
ard transmitting conductors the waves generated
could be felt an such a long distance. l think 1t
will be admitted on all sides that since the time
of Marconi,s early experiments no new knowledge
mission the electrical has been offered 10
those who are engaged in the practical develop
rnent OF wireless Biography that to-day Wire
telegraphy is practically in the same condition
in which il was IN 1856. The Cooper Hewitt mercury
=apcr interrupter is the first contribution which
conn of its peculiar properties is the very thing
needed in order extend wireless telegraphy with
r sir gle stroke away beyond its present limits.