Electricity in 1909.

Progress, Volume V, Issue 6, 1 April 1910, Page 202

Electricity in 1909.

In view of the great advance in its efficiency, the tungsten lamp is entitled to be considered the most notable improvement of the year in the field of electricity. Mention should be made, however, of the important h\ draulic-electrie plant in Norway for reducing nitrogen from the air. which is being so successfully operated that its product is being sold m successful competition with the supply from Chili. Also the calcium c><mamule fertiliser process, hitherto m the experimental ftage, has. daring the year, been demonstrated to be commercially practicable. The Berlin telephotographic process has been further improved, and in January of last year the new apparatus was successfully used between Paris and Lyons. The process of transmission is based upon the fact that a photographic plate in bichromated gelatin presents a series of elevations and depressions, advantage of which is taken for producing, by a tracing point, oscillating movements, and fluctuations in the transmission current. De Forest has improved on his system of wireless telephony as used on the U.S. Fleet during the world cruise, and a number of stations have been put in operation on the Great Lakes for communication with steamships. Communication has been established over the ninety miles separating Chicago from Milwaukee, and steamers have been in touch with the shore from a distance of forty-five miles. Gabet in France has achieved some success in the steering of a 29-foot torpedo by the wireless method previously tested by Tesla in this country and Armstrong in England. The torpedo is driven by an internal-combustion motor, and immediately back of the explosive head is a compartment containing the wireless-con-trolled instruments. It is claimed that the control is effective up to five or six miles. In recent tests, the motor was started and stopped at will, and the rudder was successfully operated from a small boat as a distance of a little over 100 yards. Mention should also be made of experimental wireless communications with, a balloon, made by the United States Army Signal Corps by means of a 300-foot phosphor-bronze wire hung to a balloon.