The Electrical experimenter
The Electrical experimenter
The Electrical experimenter
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May, 19 1 THE ELECTRICAL EXPERIMENTER 19<br />
CIVIC FORUM MEDAL FOR<br />
DR. BELL.<br />
Dr. Alexander (Iraham IjcII, inventor<br />
of the telephone, Iiefore a gathering which<br />
filled Carnegie Hall, received the Civic<br />
Korum Medal of Honor for Distinguished<br />
Public Service on March twenty-lirst.<br />
This medal was presented in 1914 to Major-general<br />
George VV. Gocthals and in 1915<br />
to Thomas .'\lva Fdison. After many eloquent<br />
speeches in his praise, Dr. liell responded<br />
modestly, endeavoring to share the<br />
tributes to him with those who have l)eei\<br />
associated with him in developing the telephone.<br />
"I may perhaps claim the credit of blazing<br />
tlie trail," he said, "but I am embarrassed<br />
at all the honor which has been<br />
done me, because so much of it should go<br />
to the many men who have since improved<br />
upon and extended its use— to such men<br />
as .Mr. Carty and his associates. Why, I<br />
am not even able to understand some of<br />
the mechanism which they have introduced<br />
into the use of the telephone. Wlicn they<br />
telephoned from Arlington and were heard<br />
at KitTel Tower in Paris, I could not see<br />
how it was done, nor could I understand<br />
how an operator in Hawaii was able to<br />
pick up the message."<br />
Dr. Bell told how, shortly after he got<br />
the idea of the telephone in 1874, he had<br />
called on Professor Henry at the Smithsonian<br />
Institution, who was then recognized<br />
as the greatest authority on electricity<br />
in America. Professor Henry listened<br />
kindly to his plan, and told him that he<br />
thought he had the germ of a great invention.<br />
"I told him that the trouble was that<br />
I did not have enough knowledge of elec-<br />
tricity," said Dr. Bell. "He said, 'Get it.'<br />
Now the fact is that, had I known much<br />
about electricity, I would never have invented<br />
the telephone. I<br />
would have thrown up the<br />
idea as wildly improbable.<br />
My study had been that<br />
of sound."<br />
A NEW INSULATING<br />
MATERIAL.<br />
"Galalith" is a hone-like<br />
substance similar in many<br />
respects to celluloid. It is<br />
manufactured from casein<br />
and formaldehyde. A solution<br />
of casein is obtained<br />
by treating skimmed milk<br />
with caustic alkali, after<br />
which the solution is clarified<br />
and the casein then<br />
precipitated by means of<br />
acids and filtered. <strong>The</strong><br />
water is then extracted<br />
under pressure and the<br />
product slowly dried over<br />
a period extending several<br />
weeks. <strong>The</strong> product obtained<br />
is casein plate,<br />
which is treated by thoro<br />
saturation with formaldehyde<br />
and dried again.<br />
Galalith is said to be an<br />
excellent insulating material<br />
somewhat transparent,<br />
altho never completely so,<br />
and of a yellowish-white<br />
horn-like color. It is<br />
workable cither in the hot<br />
or cold state, the cold galalith<br />
being softened by<br />
treatment in hot water. It<br />
is odorless, and much less<br />
inflammable than celluloid.<br />
It cannot he made into very thin sheets.<br />
Senator Shcppard recently introduced an<br />
amendment to the naval appropriation hill<br />
calling for $.50,000 to be expended in the<br />
erection of a radio station at Galveston.<br />
HEINRICH HERTZ.<br />
Born Feb. 22, 1857. Died Jan. 1, 1899.<br />
Inventor of Wireless.<br />
EIXKICH HERTZ was born on I"ebuary<br />
22, 1857, in Hamburg, Germany.<br />
le received his early training in the<br />
Hengineering schools but at the age of twenty-one<br />
he decided upon an academic career<br />
Heinrich Rudolph Hertz—Father of the Wireless<br />
Telegraph. Upon His Scientific Researches<br />
and Practical Demonstration of<br />
Maxwell's Electromagnetic <strong>The</strong>ory, Marconi<br />
and Others Have Built Up the Commercial<br />
System We Knov» To- Day.<br />
and entered the University of Berlin as a<br />
pupil of Von Helmholtz and Kirchoff.<br />
Of the many gifted students of physics<br />
who have come forth from the celebrated<br />
TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS.<br />
f-J~fHE Department of Coiiuiicrcc of ll'asliington, by its Secretary, the<br />
I Hon. IVvK C. Rcdfield. has kindly sent us the follo'ving information<br />
of particular interest to all amateurs in the United States at the present<br />
time.<br />
Secretary Redfield has issued orders that for the present no nrw licenses<br />
to radio amateurs will be issued and the reneti'al of outstanding amateur<br />
licenses zcilt be granted only by the Department upon special favorable reports<br />
by the radio inspectors. (This refers to sending outfits only.)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Department also informs our readers, reminding them of the fact<br />
that the operation of transmitting radio instrum.ents without licenses is prohibited<br />
under severe penalties, which, under the conditions of the time,<br />
Zi'ould be e.racted in the case of those zi'ho shozved no regard for the requirements<br />
of the lazv.<br />
I'p to the time that we go to press, the Department has not formulated<br />
final plans as to ivhat steps zvill be taken in regard to radio amateurs as<br />
a ii'hole, and zvhethcr they ZfitI be allozved to continue to operate the same<br />
as before. It is our personal impression, however, that no drastic steps<br />
are likely to be taken by the Government as long as the amateurs cooperate<br />
zmth the Department. .<br />
In viczv of this zee most urgently and earnestly request all amateurs at<br />
the present time to refrain from using their transmitting stations except for<br />
regular zvork. In other zvords, all unnecessary gossip and fooling should be<br />
rigidly suspended for the present', particularly the "Q.R.M." mii.iance zMch<br />
at best, only serves to irritate our officials, and wakes their work harder.<br />
If amateurs do not z'oluntarily stop such annoyance the Government wilt<br />
certainly prohibit the use of all priz'ately otiiirrf radio outfits.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se are no times to use the ether for a lot of nonsense: zve all 'wish<br />
to help our country as much as Kv possibly can until normal conditions are<br />
restored again.<br />
Alzvays remember, that our Government has granted the radio amateurs<br />
more pozvers than anv other country in the zi-orld, and in times of stress,<br />
it is up to the amateurs to shour of zi'hat stuff they arc made by cooperating<br />
Zi.'ith our officials to the fullest extent of their po-wcrs.<br />
THE EDITOR.<br />
Berlin laboratory, there are probably none<br />
who have become so world-famous as Heinrich<br />
Hertz. His qualities as an investigator<br />
were speedily recognized by Von Helmholtz,<br />
who urged him while still a student,<br />
to undertake the solution of the orize prob-<br />
lem proposed by the Berlin .Academy of<br />
Sciences in 1879.<br />
From 1880 to 1883 Dr. Hertz was an assistant<br />
in Von Helmholtz's laboratory; he<br />
then lectured for two years as instructor at<br />
Kiel. I'rom 1885 to 1889, he was professor<br />
of physics in the Polytcchnische of Karlsruhe,<br />
in the latter year Clausius, a professor<br />
of this institution, died, and Hertz<br />
was selected as his successor in the University<br />
of Bonn, where he spent the few remaining<br />
years of his life.<br />
Hertz's career as a scientific investigator<br />
covered a period of scarcely more than ten<br />
years, during which time he publisht thirtysix<br />
papers. Of these, a series of thirteen<br />
which appeared in Wiedemann's Annalen,<br />
were upon the subject with which his name<br />
will forever be connected, the laws of the<br />
propagation of electro-magnetic induction<br />
thru space. Of lliis great work, which afforded<br />
a complete experimental verification<br />
of the Maxwellian theories concerning electro-magnetism<br />
and the relation of electric-<br />
ity to light, there is no need to speak of its<br />
great importance to the scientific world.<br />
<strong>The</strong> importance of Hertz's contributions<br />
to this great subject received instant recognition.<br />
It would indeed be difficult to find<br />
any other instance in which researches bearing<br />
upon a most subtle and difficult question,<br />
and absolutely devoid of basic elements<br />
of a utilitarian or even of a popular character,<br />
having secured to their author such<br />
sudden fame. In addition to the recognition<br />
of those wno were able to appreciate<br />
his work. Hertz received the acclamations<br />
of the entire world of thought. Fortunately,<br />
he possest a nature of such complete<br />
simple-mindedness that his sudden rise into<br />
a position akin to notoriety had no effect<br />
upon him. <strong>The</strong> unassuming bearing which<br />
had always characterized him remained<br />
with him to the end.<br />
In delightful harmony<br />
with the genuine and simple<br />
nature of the man<br />
were his surroundings in<br />
the quiet university town<br />
of Bonn. His laboratory<br />
was situated in the apartments<br />
formerly occupied<br />
as a dwelling by Clausius<br />
in a wing of the old palace.<br />
Since electricity has<br />
become utilitarian, we find<br />
it associated everywhere<br />
with moving machinery<br />
and with the rush and<br />
bustle of modern industrial<br />
life, but in Hertz's<br />
laboratory, there was nothing<br />
to suggest the science<br />
of electro-technics. <strong>The</strong><br />
place seemed to breathe<br />
that spirit of academic repose<br />
which to the inmates<br />
of the present day must<br />
have seemed to have vanished<br />
altogether from the<br />
world. What might such<br />
a man, in such an environment,<br />
have not been<br />
able to achieve, had he<br />
lived?<br />
<strong>The</strong> promulgation of<br />
the theories of Dr. Heinrich<br />
Hertz in connection<br />
with Wireless waves,<br />
stimulated universal interest<br />
all over the world,<br />
which led to their use in<br />
the propagation of intelligence<br />
thru free space.<br />
In 1892, Hertz's researches<br />
upon the electric waves were gathered<br />
together in a volume under the title<br />
"Untersuchungen ueber die .\usbreitung der<br />
Elektrischen Kraft." .Mmost on the day<br />
of his death, another excellent translation<br />
of Hertz's researches appeared.