The New York herald., 1922-10-16
NIAGARA POWER MAY
COME HERE BY RADIO
Engineers Predict Plan
Will Succeed EdisOn's
Dream of Dynamo.
FOLLOWS NEW FEAT
Vacuum Tube Handles At
lantic Traffic for Six
teen Hours.
BIG POSSIBILITIES SEEN
Authorities Forecast step Will
Give Us Across Ocean
Telephony.
BIG POSSIBILITIES SEEN

Engineers were specializing again
last night as to whether the dream
that Thomas A. Edison has nursed for
so many years-that of bringing the
power of Niagara Falls to the city of
New York-will come true. Edison
wanted to do it with dynamos, but the
hope now is that radio will be able to
do it.
That remote possibility is only for
speculation now, but it was given new
impetus and increased interest yester-
day when an experimental high pow
cred vacuum tube st at Rocky Point
l.. L., operating on wave length of
$1,000 meters, handled for sixteen hours
the commercial transatlantic wireless
traffic with Great Britain and Ger
many.
This is the first time in the history of
wireless telegraphy that a high powered
tube transmitting set has operated for
so long a period over such a great dis
tance.
The test was so successful. accord
ing to a statement given out by the Radio
Corporation Of America that the op
orators actually controlling the auto
matte sending keys at Ga Broad street
did not know until afterward that they
were controlling tube transmitter in
stead of the usual alternator. And the
operators on the English and German
circuits, If they noticed a change in
the quality or the strength of the sig
nails they received. did not comment
on it.
New Test for Science.
The set which was used for the tests
yesterday was developed by the General
Electric Company at Schenectady. Plans
for the set were completed last Decem-
Der. Preliminary tests were being con-
Quoted last July when Guglielmo Mar
conf visited the station. He was deeply
impressed and predicted that the set.
which he believed would be successful,
would form one of the most important
steps in the development of wireless
communication.
DR. T.. F. Alexanderson. chief engineer
of the Radio Corporation, said
although 1t has taken ten years to
get to the point where we have a trans
atlantic tube transmitter in these ten
years the energy of the vacuum tube has
been increased more than a million
times. A few more years at the same
rate of Improvement would bring us be-
yond our widest dreams: but all we
have to say is that science and engi-
neerng have received a new tool. 1t
marks a turning point like the steam
engine and the dynamo 1t will GER
tainly give us transatlantic telephony.
but it will undoubtedly give us more"
DIR. Alexanderson added
Transatlantic telegraphy has be-
come a routine business but the impor-
tance of this demonstration is the bridg
ing Of the ocean by a few powerful
vacuum tube units. In this case only
six tubes were used and we can safely
predict that the same feat will some
day be performed by a single tube. But
what is the next? We have here seen
a new physical principle reduced to
practice on a large scale. Shall it fulfill
the dreams that Edison's dynamo has
not yet fulfilled to carry Niagaras
power to New York?
American Tubes Larger.
"Ten years ago became acquainted
with the little device known as the
'audion' Then 1t was a detector of
signals and an ampliier and the ques
ton was why not amplify some more
and then some more and use ii for
transmitting signals as well as for re-
CtlNlIlE Ut. lsdUEiIluii VI lHt r'S'diNii
laboratories of the General Electric
Company gave the complete answer to
this question"
DR.. Langmuir of the research laboTa-
tories of the General Electric. under
whose direction the tube was con-
structed said he was pleased but not
surprised by the result Of the tests
The set itself at present is made up
of three 50-kilowatt, $4,000 volt. water
cooled, metal vacuum tubes. used as rec |
tifers. and six $4,000 volt, 20-kilowatt, |
metal pliatrons, used as high frequency |
converters For the experiments one of
the new mile and a half long antennae |
suspended from six towers. 425 feet |
high. was used. The tube set succeeded |
in developing and sustaining in the an |
tenna a current of $50 amperes.
The American tubes, being cooled by |
water. may be built larger than the air
cooled tubes, and they are partially |
metal. The Marconi tubes are of glass,
but the American tubes are of copper |
and glass welded. The set in its present !
state is not regarded as reliable
transmitter, but the tests, according TO /
the statement OF the Radio Corporation, 1
show that an alternative type of equip /
ment to the Alexanderson alternator is 4
on the way to aid America In building 4
up it's worldwide system Of wireless com /
munication.
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