The Electrical experimenter

April, 1918 ELECTRICAL EXPERIMENTER 823
of llie apparatus employed in a plant
of the above size. The general view of
high tension gallery shows the transformer
in the background, with the coned
in the closed oscillating circuit
t the left. Another illustration shows the
gap having two large rota
disks fitted with plugs to obtain a high
of discharge thru the closed circuit,
primary of the oscillatory transformer
shown at the li ft.
ii
The treating chambers are shown in an-
r illustration in \i hi< h the mi
ire ti eated. The lai gi por elain insulators
can be clearly seen that
elei tn ides. The pipi
insulati thi central
o wound with
electric heating coils to obtain the propei
emperature.
All this apparatus is controlled from a
•.witch-board that is shown in another illustration,
which also mounts the meters that
indicate the currents flowing in the differ-
nt circuits ;it
The entire
an} time
operation taking place at
atmospheric pressure, it is a simple matter
to fit the ordinary crude oil still with the
necessary treating chambers and electrical
equipment. Tests tend to prove that the
ost of treating one gallon oj kerosene does
not exceed one cent, while the value of the
process will be better appreciated when it
is stated that it is practical n> convert nearly
all the volatile oils into gasoline without
undue precipitation "i .'.n-hon or the production
of fixt gases
\t a recent test it was possible to change
78.68 per cent of the kerosene used into
gasoline, but the plant under contritt
tion is expected to rats,- the percentage
to 98 or 100. Mr. Cherry has offered
to furnish the government all the gasoline
it requires for a flat rate of 10 cents per
gallon, and to say the least this offer has
caused quite a commotion among those
interested in gasoline production.
Is this but another step along the road
The Telautograph, practically unknown
to the vast majority of people not actively
engaged in business, has become during
recent years a very familiar and important
part of the message transmission in commercial
and industrial life of this coun-
a ' .pafien, natZ ^BP
The "Telautograph"—the Electric Machine That Writes.
Intercommunicating Switch-box at Left Which Connects
Any Desired Station.
to the production of gold from the baser
metals? According to the more recent
theories of the electrical nature of matter
it should be possible to affect such a change
bj electrical means. All man made
up of electrical charges, it merely remains
for some one to find a way ol controlling
tin grouping of these charge and the)
can instantly produce anything from the
material in hand.
The kerosene vapor with which has been
mixed natural gas, enters at A and passes
into pipe B. The latter is of iron covered
with a layer of electrical insulation, such
as mica, shown at F, over which is wound
the resistance wires G, for heating the
chamber. These wires are in turn covered
by a thick layer of heat insulating material
to retain the heal and keep the temperature
constant.
The electrode D is mounted centrally in
the chamber, being supported and insulated
by the porcelain E. At .1 is shown the terminals
of the heating winding.
The sectional view also shows the wiring
to produce the high tension high frequency
currents required to treat the vapors. An
alternating current supply is connected to
the primary of the step-up transformer T.
thru a choke coil CC. A condenser C is
shunted across the secondary of the transformer,
while a rotary spark gap R serveto
discharge the condenser periodically thru
the primary of the oscillation transformer
O. T. In this manner high frequency currents
are induced in the secondary ol" the
oscillation transformer, which flow' to the
ARGENTINE GOVERNMENT
WANTS ELECTRIC VOT-
ING MACHINE.
The Argentine government has invited
American electrical manufacturers to submit
bids on making and installing an electric
voting machine in the chamber of deputies
of Argentina.
The Telautograph
What It Is
try. The Telautograph, as its name indicates,
being derived from the Greek words
"Tele" "Auto" and "Grapho," means, literally
translated, one's writing at a distance.
It is a little more than a telegraph, in that
the actual handwriting of the operator is
transmitted almost in facsmile.
To express it in another way.
with the Telautograph you write
over wires as with the telephone
\' m talk i
iver
wires.
History.
\s with almost every new and
important invention the history
of the development of the Telautograph
is interesting, because
it has spread over a long period
of years and has required constant
and unceasing effort of
many inventors before the instrument
was brought to its present
commercial and practical
construction.
Telautographs in one form or
another have Keen invented and
patented as far hack as 1S76,
followed by different ideas for
acomplishing the same purpose
in subsequent patents issued to
different men in the United
States and England in I
1886 and 1888. In these early
types of telautographs the paper
On Which the mess. me was written
by the operator and also that
which it was traced by the
receiving pen was caused to move
rods D, connection being made from the
other terminal to the pipes as shown at I
The heating coils are connected to the
current supply thru an adjustable resistanci
not shown in the drawing
Sectional View of Electrified High-Tenslor
Vapor Chambers Used in Producing Synthetic
Gasoline.
continuously, necessitating considerable
skill on the part of the writer in forming
the characters to assure a legible reproduction
of handwriting and affording no facili-
ties whatever for the transmission of figures
and sketches.
hii agoan that
i A story is told by an old
one day in the winter of 1886. or 1887, he
entered the office of a friend, a well-kno
Chicago financier, and found this tinanciei
gravely watching a tall, gray-bearded mar.
manipulate a cane and umbrella which had
their handles hooked together, and was slid
ing them about over the top of a rlat desk
while he told of a new kind of telegraph
that he had gotten up. The gra\ -bearded
man was Elisha Gray, of telephone fame
and with the cane and umbrella he was
demonstrating the principle of the now
well-known Telautograph pen-arm mo
ment.
Whether this story is true or not. it was
about this time that Mr. Gray built bis first
telautograph. It was smaller than a grand
piano and its mechanism was composed
mainly of weights and strings, but it worked
and actually transmitted handwriting after
a fashion over wires between the inventor's
bouse and his laboratory, about five
hundred yards distant.
The results obtained with this crude instrument
were sufficiently encouraging to
Mr. Gray to cause him to put in a great deal
hard work during the next few years,
endeavoring to develop an instrument that
would be suitable for commercial
tinned on page 874 I