The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-24
VACUUM TUBE HAS | PLAYED B|G PART | IN NEW INVENTION Hewitt's Experiments Make Possible Identification of
 Freight Railroads PLAYS ITS PART IN
 PERFECT TELEPHONE Wireless Operations and Wireless Telephony Both Make Long Step in Advance as Result
 of Experiments
By HOLLAND

New York. April 2S.-(Special)-A report
 has just been received from the operating
 department of the New Haven Railroad company which justifies the belief en-
 tertained by the late George Westinghouse
 thas it would be possible to equip motor
 car with the Cooper Hewitt mercury arc
 rectifier and by that means so satisfactor-
 fly operate the motor that the reduction
 in cost of operating would be so consid-
 erable as vitally to stimulate the dispo-
 sition to operate railway trains with cleo tric energy The apparatus which Is an
 invention of pr. Peter Cooper Hewitt
 makes it possible to reduce the line volt
 age, which on the New Haven system is ll,0oo to about l2oo and. furthermore, the
 rectifier makes it possible to utilize the all
 ternating current with the direct current apparatus.
 The tests upon one of the branch lines
 of the New Haven system have been con-
 tinued for some five months The motor
 has been operated approximately 4o.0oo
 miles, and the report says that has been done without single hitch If as Mir. Westinghouse expected. the utilization of ths apparatus will greatly reduce the cost or operating motor cars, especially those hauling freight trains, then it seems like ly that the result he anticipated so far
 as general identification of railways is concerned, is near at hand.
 It Is an illustra ton of the wizardlv char acteristic of the laboratories of Dr. Peter Cooper Hewitt which are placed in the ufpe- story of the Madison Square Garden tower. that this evolution should have
 been developed from the vacuum light ap-
 paratus which he invented in 1902 and pat
 m fA1 In I., Tar mastered the art of securing an eco-
 homie and satisfactory light bv the pass
 age of an electric current through a vacuum tube in which was deposited mer-
 cury that the apparatus was pronounced by Mir, Westinghouse and others one of
 the greatest achievements in the field of
 electrical development. Columbia uni
 versty gave recognition 10 Dr Hewitt
 ov conferring upon him the degree of doc tor of science
 pr Hewitt in working out this vacuum tube problem perceived certain peculiari- ties associated with the action of the elec- trie current in the positive as well as the negative end of the tube When Crooks of London perefcted his vacuum tube he, too, perceived pecuiarities which it was his purpose to investigate One of ms vacuum tubes was procured by Roent- gen for experimental purposes, and it was ] In such use of it that the accidental dis | eovery of the Roentgen ray vas made. So. also. Dr. Hewitt while developing his mer-
 cury vapor light perceived such eccentric tiles or peeuliarities in the action of the electric current at each end of the vacuum tube as Justified exhaustive study and in yestgs ton, Out of that study have re- gently been developed, first, the apparatus which now after long tests seems to have perfectly demonstrated it's value for use upon motor car attached to railway trains: second, the invention of an ap- | paratus without which 1t would have been Impossible to have perfected the long dis tance telephone system between New York and San Francisco and third. the con l struction of apparatus which will be of the utmost value in the development of wire | less telephoning and telegraphing. These | by no means illustrate the possibilities which, are in the various factors associated with the vacuum tube. Dr. Hewitt is con- l fdent that if he lives long enough he will be able to develop other things of commercial importance which will make of the vacuum tube not only an art of Itself, but of highest importance to all | other material arts.