The patriot. [volume] (Indiana, Pa.) 1914-1955, 1915-03-06
PROMISE To END
SMOKE IN CITIES
Electrical Engineers See Air
Quickly Cleared.
FOG WIRES TO AID SHIPS.
Practical Demonstration Is Given
Showing How Powerful Electric Volt
age Will Detach Particles of Carbon
and Other Material Substances From
= Gases Passing Up Chimney.


!, Gases Passing Up Chimney.
A. means of making Pittsburgh a
Spotless town. of doing away with
London's fogs and of enabling safe
navigation in thick weather was out
lined in three papers read before the
members of the American Institute of
Electrical Engineers at the closing ses-
sion of the convention in New York.
Electrical precipitation, q method first
practically applied by Sir Oliver Lodge
of England, was stated as the solution
of these problems.
A practical demonstration showing
how a powerful electric voltage will
detach the particles Of carbon and 9th
er material substances from the gases
passing up chimney, thereby doing
away with the Objectionable smoke.
was given in the auditorium. A guam
tity of lampblack was blown up
through fifteen foot smOkestack plac-
ed on the platform. The flying parti-
cles filled the air. Then $4,000 volts
were turned on, and at once the lamp
black attached itself to the interior of
the chimney and the air cleared.
BY adjusting the voltage to the size
Of the smOkestack to be treated facto-
ries will be made smOkeless, it was
said, and thousands Of dollars that are
now lost through smoke damage will
be saved.
Moving Pictures of Fogs.
Moving pictures of fO9s and clouds
and their elimination as produced by
electricity have been taken, it was
said to show the practicability of the
plan to free London from the grip of
the dense fogs and to eliminate men
ace of sea travel. At the present time
Sir Oliver Lodge is said to be working
on q plan by which London will be
strung with wires through which a
high voltage will be passed and the fog
cleared away. Engineers at the meet
ing agreed that the plan was not i'm
possible and expressed great interest in
the work.
An unusual idea was suggested for
removing the fogs from about ships at
sea. A small aeroplane electrically pro
PEELED from a ship will fly about two
boat lengths in front of the liner during
the fog. From the flying machine will
be strung a high powered electric wirt
reaching back to the ship. The cur
rent passing through the wire is eX-
pected to cause a precipitation Of the
moisture in the air and clear Il channel
some 1000 feet in advance Of the ship
and to some extent on either side
through which the ship may safely
pass. This will enable the lOokouts to
detect another ship approaching in
time to maneuver the liner out of dan.
ger.
The patent rights ON the discovery
are owned by the Smithsonian institu
tion at Washington and the Mellon In
stitute of Industrial Research of Pitts
burgh. The income On the patents will
be devoted by the institutions to fur
thering research work on scientific sub
jectS, it was said
The papers dealing with the diScOv-
cry were read by DR.. w. W. Strong of
Mechanicsburg. Pa, Arthur T. Nesbit,
professor of electrical engineering at
the University of Pittsburgh and cleo
trical engineer Of the Mellon institute,
and Linn Bradley.