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1903.] MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. _ a WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY MAY BE REVOLUTIONIZED. In its last issue the Electrical Review describes a new ap- paratus invented by Peter Cooper Hewitt, which some of those who have examined it say will make a revolution in methods of sending wireless telegraph messages. 'The device consists of a glass globe, about Io in. in diameter, having two tubes containing mercury sealed into the bottom of the vessel. This apparatus acts as a powerful and effective interrupter, and takes the place of the spark gap now used in discharging the condensers for set- ting up electrical waves. It enables powerful, rapid and continu- ous oscillations: to be set up in the antenna, or sending mast, used in transmitting wireless messages, and not only enables messages to be sent over very great distances with ease, but permits secrecy to bq maintained which heretofore has been impossible. She operation of this device depends upon two new pheno- mena in physics, which have been discovered by Mr. Hewitt in the course of his researches. The fist is the resistance of the mercurv in the apparatus to a passage of current until a high po- tential has been applied; the second is the disappearance of this resistance after this high voltage: has been reached. 'The effect of these two phenomena is to permit a condenser to be charged to a high potential, and then, by the disappearance of the resistance of the interrupter, to discharge it very rapidly: The result of this action is to set up violent and rapid current impulses in the circuit containing the condenser, and thence in the sending wire. These current impulses, being very powerful, will enable mes- sages to be sent to great distances, and as the number of oscilla- tions per second can be controlled, this permits of selective sig- nalling. The number of impulses per second can be made very high--above 1,000,0c0 per second if desired. 'The device is in- expensive, and it is said that there is no appreciable deterioration in it, so that it has a long life. Dr. Michael I. Pupin, professor of electromechanics at Col- umbia university, and well known as the inventor of the Pupin system of long-distance and submarine telephony, is much inter- ested in the Cooper Hewitt mercury vapor interrupter and made the following statement of his estimate of the value of the new device: "I have watched the development of the Cooper Hewitt mer- cury vapor tube as an interrupter from the very beginning. The present operation of the device comes up to my highest expecta- tions, and in my opinion it is one of the most important discover- ies in physics which has been made during the last ten years. The operation of the tube as an interrupter depends upon two new elements in the character of the cathode resistance of the vacuum tube--first, the disappearance of this cathode resistance as soon as the impressed voltage has reached a certain value; second, its sudden reappearance as soon as the current strength through the tube has fallen below a certain small value. These two ele- ments are entirely new, and they form one of the prettiest dis- coveries which Mr. Hewitt has made in the course of his investi- gations. "I do net know of any other case where a physical discovery found such a rapid practical application, and this is due to the fact that physicists experimenting in the domain of electrical waves, and electrical engineers engaged in the development of wireless telegraphy, were waiting for a current interrupter pos- sessing the very characteristics which the Cooper Hewitt tube possesses in consequence of the two novel elements referred to above. "To illustrate this it is sufficient to refer to the needs of wire- less telegraphy which the mercury vapor interrupter seems to satisfy. It is perfectly evident today that wireless telegraphy will not make any essential progress until a method is discovered of generating very powerful and persistent electrical waves. They must be powerful in order to overcome distance, and they must be persistent to enable us to employ the methods of selec- tive tuning. The Cooper Hewitt mercury interrupter is capable of furnishing just such kind of electrical waves, and there is no other interrupter which comes anywhere near it in this respect. I do not think that I am saying too much when I state that the contribution which this development will make to wire- less telegraphy is by far the most important which has been made since Marconi's earliest experiments, which demonstra- ted the practicability of transmitting electrical energy with- out wires to a distance of over twenty miles by employing two upright wires, ecch grounded, and impressing on the sending wire electrical oscillations such as Hertz employed in his classi- cal experiments. ' "The early experiments by Mr. Marconi were a revelation to physicists, not because they contain any physical novelty, but be- cause they demonstrated that by a certain arrangement of receiv- ing and transmitting conductors the waves generated could be felt at such a long distance. I think it will be admitted on all sides that since the time of Marconi's early experiments, no new knowledge with regard to the method of generation or transmis- sion of the electrical waves has been offered to those who are engaged in the practical development of wireless telegraphy, so that today wireless telegraphy is practically in the same condition in which it was in 1896. The Cooper Hewitt mercury vapor in- terrupter is the first contribution which possesses extraordinary novelty, and which on account of its peculiar properties is the very thing needed in order to extend wireless telegraphy with a single stroke away beyond its present limits. How far this extension will reach I am not prepared to say, but that it will be far-reach- ing there is not the slightest doubt in my mind." ANNUAL MEETING STANDARD CHAIN CO. At the annual meeting in Jersey City last week of the stock- holders of the Standard Chain Co., whose main offices are in Pittsburg, President John C. Schmidt read his annual report showing a very satisfactory condition of affairs. The following directors were elected for the ensuing year: John C. Schmidt, Charles H. Hayden, Robert Garland, J. T. Davis, A. S. White, Franz Krein, Eli Attwood, Peter Wertz, Frederic F. Culver, Charles A. Painter, George S. Schmidt, F. W. Prentiss and Oscar L. Gubelmann. Out of a possible 22,946 votes, 20,706 were cast for each director above named. At the subsequent directors' meeting the following officers were elected: John C. Schmidt, president; Robert Garland, vice-president; J. 'T. Davis, general manager; Franz Krein, assistant general manager; Wm. Robertson, treasurer; W. R. Dawson, general sales agent. Ex- "mecutive committee: John C. Schmidt, chairman; Robert Gar- land, J. T. Davis, Franz Krein and Peter Wertz. Following is the condensed balance sheet for Dec. 31, 1902: : ASSETS. Real estate, plant, buildings and machinery........ $2,461,308.93 New construction ....... Ph 176,500.00 Common 'stock In treasury. 7004 10,000.00 Accounts and notes receivable .,.5-... 5: $261,854.17 Materials and supplies, including fur- niture and interest and insurance paid: it, Advance |. a ee 463,944.28 CASH Uy ke 10,376.04 i Otel 4. fee Se oe $3,383,989.42 LIABILITIES. ° Capitabstoék: :Comimon (2...25 524 $1,277,200.00 Preferred avis ee I,031,400.00 First. mortgage bonds: Issued 2... 2.0. $700,000.00 Less, redeemed and canceled.$ 40,000.00 'Preasury: bonds 2.26. -.72) 113,000.00 153,000.00 co : : oe 547,000.08 Accounts 'payable: sv). (Ge $132,369.92 Buls-payable.. ss. 151,000.00 Bond interest accrued (not due)........ 12,780.00 -------- __ 296,149.92 Total lapiltfies oe a eee $3,151,749.92 First mortgage bonds, premium account........... 6,329. Surplus' oes EA ee 225,909.52 Potala. ee $3,383,989.42 NEW YORK NOTES. Mr. H. B. Roelker, consulting and constructing engineer, 41 Maiden lane, New York, lately completed the installation of an Allen dense air ice machine in twenty-three days' time on the steam yacht Riviera, the owner of which suddenly determined on a five or six-months' cruise to South America, Africa and the Mediterranean. A rush order for an Allen ice machine was therefore given and the time record for installation broken. The yacht left on her cruise a short time ago. Mr. Roelker is also placing similar machines in 'Mr. Hart's new yacht Constant, now building in Baltimore, and Mr. Chas. S. Bryan's yacht Czarina, building by the United States Ship Building Co. at the Crescent yards, Elizabethport, N. J. He also has under way in his shops fifteen of these machines, the majority of which are to be installed in old and new United States war vessels. : Capt. Howard Patterson, late of the United States navy and now president of the New York Nautical College, and Mr. George Crouse Cook, naval architect of 15 Whitehall street, and lecturer on naval architecture to the New York public schocls, have formed a partnership under the firm name of Cook & Patterson, naval architects and engineers, and have opened offices at 130 Water street, New York. They purpose making a specialty of large steam yachts. Ship building has been revolutionized three times during the past month. 'The latest to revolutionize it, according to the newspapers, is Prof. Keretzschmer, chief constructor of the Ger- man navy, assisted by the kaiser. The ordinary type of vessel is entirely rejected and one substituted for it in the form of an cquatic bird. It is understood that by annihilating wave resist- ance the propelling capacity of the screw is augmented 50 per cent. It is stated that the new type of vessel will make no com- motion or waves of any kind but will glide along the surface of the water with the easy motion of a duck. Sawyer Bros. of Millbridge, Me., have sold the vessel that is now on the stocks at their yard, and which they expect to have completed in July, to Henry Lord of Bangor.