Radio age (Jan 1927-Jan 1928)

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RADIO AGE for September, 1927 25 "B" Batteries encased in a parachute sack as they looked after their 25,000 foot drop from an army balloon. They were still good for further use Batteries Drop 25,000 Feet Still Working O. K. Just how durable is a radio dry battery? Captain Hawthorne C. Gray of the U. S. Army Air Corps, satisfied himself on this point recently when he broke all previous world altitude records for free balloon flights in reaching a height of 42,470 feet at Scott Field Air Depot, Belleville, 111. At a height of approximately 25,000 feet, the radio "B" batteries and dry cells, with which his balloon was equipped, were hurled overboard in a specially made parachute; were recovered uninjured and returned by parcel post to Captain Gray without packing, in the condition shown in these photographs. Captain Gray, in a letter to National Carbon Company, makers of the Everready Batteries so ignominiously treated, writes: "The same set of batteries was used in my altitude flight of March 9th and is still in condition to be used again. The "B" batteries tested 21 volts each, and "A" batteries tested 23 amps." Diagram Shows Plane Features This diagram gives some of the new details of the construction of Commander Noel Davis' plane "Pathfinder" in which he will attempt the 3,600 mile non-stop flight from New York to Paris this summer for the $25,000 Orteig prize. Some of its unusual features are — the huge 900 gallon tas tank in the fuselage, smaller gas tanks in the wings of the plane, which are of unusual thickness, shock absorbers on landing gear, deflated life preserver raft stored in the fuselage and a special designed instrument which shows whether the ship is on even keel. The "Pathfinder," now in process of construction at the Keystone Aircraft Factory, Bristol, Pa., is to have three Wright whirlwind engines developing over 200 H. P. each. The plan also has a short-wave broadcasting set. The large gas tank is divided into partitions to prevent the splashing which might disturb the equilibrium of the ship. Edward Manley, radio operator of Putnam-Baffin Island Expedition, testing out his transmitting apparatus. Radio Nearest Pole When the schooner " Morrissey," in charge of Captain" Bob" Bartlett, Peary's skipper of his North Pole days, comes abreast of West Baffin Island with the members of the Putnam-Baffin Island Expedition aboard, it will mark the nearest that radio has ever been taken to the Magnetic Pole. The Putnam-Baffin Island Expedition, headed by GeorgePalmer Putnam, left New York on June 11 for West Baffin Island, a region unvisited by white men since its discovery by Luke Fox in 1631. Radio scientists are especially interested in the outcome of radio experiments so near the actual center of the earth's magnetic force. Radio operations and experimental work will be in charge of Edward Manley, of Marietta, Ohio. The Morrissey's radio equipment, as shown here, includes a generator-powered transmitter (shown at extreme left of picture), a battery-powered transmitter with the UX 852 tube (shown at top of wooden shelf), two especially built radio receivers, one short wave, one long wave, and a portable battery transmitter. Equipment includes 37 dry batteries, which can be used for portable purposes. The battery-powered transmitter shown above, in addition to the UX 852 tube, which will be used for the first time in Northern waters, has four radio frequency chokes. The circuit is shown as a tuned plate and tuned grid circuit, for use on 33 and 20 meters. Twenty "B" batteries supply 900 volts as power. Electric Arc Decomposes Water What will 6,000 volts of direct current, at the rate of 5 to 6 amperes, do to a stream of water? Here's the answer. The heavy current decomposes the water into its constituents, hydrogen and oxygen, and reburns the hydrogen to form more water. In addition, slight impurities in the water are burned, the flame being colored reddish-purple by potassium salts, golden yellow by sodium, and green by copper. The photograph was taken in the East Pittsburgh works, U. S. A. of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, where the machine was under test as a generator of plate current for radio work. One side of the circuit was the water pipe, from which a piece of heavy copper wire dipped into a porcelain insulator. As the water flowed into the bowl-like top of the insulator and spilled over the sides, the current arced through the water and returned to the generator through a wire entering the lower portion of the insulator. The arc varied in length from three to five inches, and expended 25 kilowatts power — enough to light 600 ordinary 40-watt house lamps. Film Feeding Device Edward Amet, Los Angeles inventor, exhibits a model of a new film feeding device which can take from 1 to 25,000 pictures per second. This invention, he believes, is the only bona fide fast film feed in existence, aside from the secret methods used by the Government in aerial, photography