Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1915-09-24
EDISON ENDS GlS
PERIL IN U-BOAlS
Successful Tests Of Storage Battery
Perfected by Inventor Dispel
Fear of Chlorine.
EXPERIMENTED FOR 2 YEARS.
Discovery OF Means to Combat Dread
Of Undersea Sailors VIII be Re-
ported 70 Washington.

Miller Reese Hutchinson. personal
representative of Thomas A. Edison.
gave the New York World dcscrip-
tion of an official government test at
he New York navy yard yesterday.
shich Mr. Hutchinson said proved he
ond a shadow of doubt that a stor-
g. battery for submarines has been
evolved which. under no conditions.
am breed death-dcalug chlorine gas
he most dreaded of mdersca sailors
aes
For the tests this afternoon" Mr..
hutchinson said Capt George +.
'urd, industrial manager of the navy
ard, sent a tug far out 10 sea TO get
pure sea water in iron drums that
ever had been used before
Il had prepared 100 miniature
ellis and these were placed in "a tank
ioldiug the pure sea water The tank
vas hermeNCallv sealed, except for
little pipe With the Government OIL
3ers we waited half an hour and then
applied the most sensitive tests known
O chemistry TO find chlorine gas but
here was not the slightest trace
I'VE waited another short period of
ime and then tried the tests again
rhey were still negative II was proved
absolutely that thc new submarine bat
terry will not produce chlorine gas The
officers who were present with Captain
Burd will make an Official report to the
Navy Department"
Mr. Hutchinson said then new battery
is made of iron, nickel and potash. in
stead of lead and sulphuric acid. not
lard rubber
The new battery had its beginning"
Mr. Hutchinson continued, when four
lieutenants in the submarine service
were so deeply impressed with the dan
ger from chlorine gas that they called
on Mr. Edison in July, 1910. at Their
own expense. and asked him TO try per-
sonally to develop battery free OF
tnat danger.
! For two years Mr.. Edison put most
Of his time and q great deal of money
/ into the task and i'm 1912 evolved the
| cell he was after. AS a matter of fact
! IL was all right then but Mr. Edison
/ becomes pessinistic after he has a task
completed SO he started right out to
I find the weak points, and in June. 1914.
he decided he had remedied every flaw.
AT that time the New York navy
( yard had rigged up platform which
( rolled and pitched just like a subma-
rine listing to an angle of from IS TO
I so degrees. And for ten minutes a day
/ it was fixed so that IL bumped like
/ this" and Mr. Hutchinson hit the re-
/ porter's knee resoundng thump with
his fist.
"Well. all the manufacturers were
invited to send cells to be placed on
this test platform, and we sent three.
1t is certain our cells are the only ones
on the platform now. They were put
there in July, 1914, and they are still
on the job.
"They have been discharged and
charged five hundred times which rep
resents ten years of active service, as a
submarine in peace time averages only
one charge and discharge a week The
Navy Department gave us an order to
install a new Edison battery, and the
E-2 is now ifteen-sixteenth equipped
The battery we have installed is only
so per cent as big as it could have beeI
and weighs but II 600 pounds. compar.
ed with the 10000 pounds Of the equip
ment is replaces :"
Mr. Hutchinson ended by saying Wig.
orously:" And perhaps it doesn't make
me mad when people say the Old Maj
hasn't turned out an epoch making
submarine battery"