Radio age (Jan 1927-Jan 1928)

26 RADIO AGE for October, 1927 ROMANCE OF COTTON (Continued from page 23) One, however, might be singled out as being rather unusually ingenious. That is the use of cotton in the cords attached to telephones. These cords present an unique problem. Copper has to be used to carry the current. But copper wire breaks when bent, and these cords, of course, are bent many times in the course of a busy day of telephoning. In manufacturing these cords the Western Electric Company, the largest manufacturer of telephones, winds flat ribbons of copper no thicker than a hair spirally around a cotton thread. In this way they make cottton threads give strength to copper wires. Other present-day uses involve the cotton seed and the waste from the gin, which formerly were thrown away. From the cotton seed is made cotton seed oil, substitutes for lard, oil cake and oil meal. Tiniest Motor A motor so small its rotor could be wrapped in a postage stamp is used by the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, for timing the OB watthour meter demand register. It is the smallest synchronous motor ever manufactured for practical use. Four million of these complete motors, together with their reduction gears, would be required Flyweight motor held between the fingers of a man, showing minute construction as compared to that of the human hand. to balance a large 8,000 hp. motor recently built in the Westinghouse shops. The diameters of their shafts are in the ratio of 512 to 1. The rotors are still smaller in proportion as 37 million are required to equal the weight of the large one. While two men, one on the other's shoulders, could stand upright in the circular opening for the rotor in the 8,000 hp. motor, the rotor of this motor could be worn, set in a ring, on a man's little finger. Fine Measuring In the manufacture of certain telephone parts, machinery of an almost unbelievable accuracy is required. One piece in operation in the works of the Western Electric Company is a measuring machine that is capable of measurements within one-one-hundred-thousandth of an inch. Kiddie Car Enters Rough Sports E. T. Trombly of the Western Electric team demonstrating perfect scooter polo poise. Above — An exciting melee in which heads might easily have served for the ball. If wishes were horses, beggars might ride. And if the horses don't materialize — and horses are scarce these days — the thing now is to wish for kiddie cars. For if you are equipped with one of those push and hop machines you can join in the new game of scooter polo. And it's great sport, as mounted on your kiddie steed, with mallet set, you charge down the field — or, rather, the gymnasium floor — for a long drive to the net and tally. Even pony polo is scarcely fraught with more excitement or danger than was the game of scooter polo played at the sports carnival held recently in the auditorium of Oakland, California, by the Industrial Athletic Association of that city. Equipped with croquet balls and mallets and rubber-tired scooters, the crack teams of the Western Electric Company and Montgomery Ward gave an indoor exhibition of two chukkers of as exiting polo as ever was fought on field. Aside from a few skinned shins, a number of broken mallets and many spills from mounts, you could say there were no casualties at all. Melees were stiff and the teams so evenly matched that the game resulted in a tie. The only drawback that can be seen to the new game is when both father and child insist on using the family scooter at the same time. Learn to Fly by Radio Here is an absolutely new wrinkle in radio programs — a broadcast of practical lessons in airplane flying! KOA, the Rocky Mountain broacasting station at Denver, Colo., is to put them on the air. Cloyd Clevenger, World War ace and now pilot at the Alexander Airport, is to give them. Clevenger has had great success as a test flyer and instructor in flying. There is much that a student pilot must learn before he takes his first flight, Clevenger says. It is this preliminary instruction he will give his radio flying class. Lessons began Sept. 9. They will be continued for 10 weeks, going on the air each Friday night from 8 to 8:15 p. m., mountain standard time. Clevenger's student flyers will sit in their own homes with perhaps electric fans blowing wind in their faces. They can set a broomstick between their knees to take the place of a "joy stick." A genuine airplane motor will be set up in the KOA studio to add greater realism to the lessons. See picture on page 11.