Radio Broadcast (Nov 1926-Apr 1927)

62 RADIO BROADCAST NOVEMBER, 1926 RADIO ENGINEERS DETERMINE EXACT NUMBER OF CUBIC INCHES PRESENT IN GALLON Results lo be Given to American Association for Advancement of Science — Nobel Prize may be Awarded to Intrepid Investigators of Mysteries of Gallon DURING the month of July I paid a visit to my colleague, D. N. Stair, the chief of the brave men who turn sixty cycles a. c. into radio frequency at Bound Brook, New Jersey. Among other things, we discussed the problem of scale deposition on the water-cooled plates of the large tubes, and the feasibility of substituting surface water for the deep-well supply in use. Then, still earning our salaries virtuously by such cogitations, we strolled to a point about a thousand feet from the station building, where a tile pipe emitted a small stream of clear water, the drainage of the nearby fields. Here we sat down, looking at the bright green vegetation in the rivulet, and trying to decide whether the flow was sufficient to fill our cooling system in the allowable time. "First," I announced, "we must know the number of cubic inches in a gallon. I was taught this figure in school, but of course I have forgotten it. No doubt you can tell me." " I fear," replied my colleague, "that the figure has also escaped my mind." "Six hundred and forty acres to the mile," I reflected aloud, "and there are one thousand seven hundred and twenty-eight cubic inches in a cubic foot. But that has nothing to do with the cubic contents of a gallon. Suppose you get your Electrical Engineers' Handbook. After mastering the difficulties of the index system, in two or three hours we can find what we want." "An E. E. Handbook is one of the things we haven't got at this station," replied Mr. Stair, sorrowfully. "What!" I ejaculated. " Do you mean to tell me that you operate a plant of this size without an E. E. Handbooh on the premises, if only for the sake of appearances? Well, then, get your slide rule. On the back you will find tables and all sorts of useful facts collected by savants, from Euclid to Einstein." "No slide rule, either," was the answer. " We use a table of logarithms." "Then we are driven to using our wits. Now let us see if we can reflect credit on our Alma Maters dear, the test shops at Schenectady, and Aldene, etc. In my mind I have a picture of a certain gallon jug of port wine which, materially, exists at my home, forty miles away. I judge the jug to be about seven inches in diameter and ten inches high. The area of the base is 3.1416 times the square of the diameter, or about one hundred and fifty-four square inches. Multiplying by ten, we arrive at the conclusion that there are one thousand five hundred and forty cubic inches in a gallon, approximately. Does that figure sound familiar?" "But," protested Mr. Stair, "the area of a circle is 3. 14 16 times the square of the radius, not the diameter." "You are right," I assented immediately. "Therefore we must divide the previous result by four. The new answer is three hundred and eighty-five cubic inches to the gallon." QUIRED BY FINDING THE TIME RETO FILL THE CAN ONCE" CONDENSERS AT RUGBY, ENGLAND S NEWEST STATION The station is so arranged that either short or long waves for telephony or long distance telegraphy can be used for communication with the British colonies or with the United States. The condensers shown are able to withstand 800 amperes at 40,000 volts. The bus bars and lugs are about six inches in diameter and large enough for one's fist to fit inside. Six million sheets of mica, carefully tested and gauged, to the thickness of three-thousandths of an inch were used by the makers, the Dubilier company, into the units which make up the bank "It still sounds high," observed my colleague. " I wish it were higher, when it comes to the port wine," I replied. "The higher the better." At this point Mr. Stair had an idea. He produced a one-gallon oil can and measured it triumphantly. "There are two hundred and nineteen cubic inches in one gallon," he trumpeted, after some figuring, "unless the oil mer-> chant is a crook." " He probably is." But now, using the empty oil can, we were able to measure the flow of the stream directly, in gallons per minute, by finding the time required to fill the can once. We then returned to the station, where we found Mr. Geer, an engineer of an associated company. Mr. Geer likes to do things himself, and at this moment he was striking a cold chisel with a hammer. I interrupted him. "Brother Geer," I asked him seriously, "how many cubic inches, to your mind, constitute a gallon?" "Two hundred and thirty-one," answered Mr. Geer without an instant's hesitation. "Preposterous," I said, "I have just calculated three hundred eighty-five and Stair finds two hundred and nineteen." Nevertheless, I felt something hauntingly familiar about the figure Mr. Geer had mentioned. On the train back to New York I suddenly recollected that I carry in my pocket a small souvenir notebook issued by a nationally prominent engineering firm, containing wire tables, weights and measures, etc. Sure enough, there were and are two hundred and thirty one cubic inches in a gallon. "Oh, well," I reflected, "our scheme of weights and measures is unworthy of a civilized, scientific people. I shall join a society in favor of the adoption of the metric system."