[CW] Continuous Wave much better than spark

Fri May 7 21:48:44 EDT 2021

    Excuse the delay, I have not been feeling well lately. I will 
see what I can find for you. I have not read Helen Fessendon's 
bio, it sounds like must reading. I am not sure about the first 
broadcast. This is based on some discussion in mailing lists 
recently, I may be able to find it. It may be absolutely wrong. I 
am fairly sure that there were a number of inventors who worked 
on various types of alternators. Fessendon's was one of the more 
successful ones. G.E. built the a relatively low power one for 
him. He had an argument with Alexanderson about using a wooden 
core, Alexanderson insisted it had to be metal. Alexanderson was 
able to construct a much higher power machine. I will look again 
at Howeths book to confirm my memory. Thorne Mayes gives 
considerable detail about where the various alternators were 
installed. GE built twenty of them but at least two were never 
used. First of all they turned out to be much more reliable than 
anyone thought they would be and secondly short wave and vacuum 
tubes began to obsolete them almost as soon as they were 
employed. Part of the efficiency of the alternator was from the 
multiple tuned antennas used with them.
     More anon...

On 5/6/2021 3:43 PM, D.J.J. Ring, Jr. wrote:
> I wasn't there, but if you have any citations, I'm in 
> Marshfield, MA and some (but not most) of the Fessenden 
> collection is here, the rest if I remembeer correctly is in 
> North Carolina.
> Unless I'm totally wrong, his wife, Helen wrote in her 
> biography of her husband, Reginald Fessenden, that Westinghouse 
> was unable to produce a very high frequency alternator and it 
> was the work of her husband's engineers in Washington DC that 
> perfected the alternator and resulted in its use in Brant Rock 
> in 1906.
>
> Here's what Helen Fessenden says in Empiries of Tomorrow, in 
> 1940. https://archive.org/details/fessendenbuilder00fessrich 
> <https://archive.org/details/fessendenbuilder00fessrich>
>
> Mr. Kintner[Genera; Manager of National Electric Signaling 
> Company - NES Co.] vividly describes the development of this
> final method.
>
> " how to make the continuous waves was not so apparent.
>
> Fessenden boldly said, "Take a high-frequency alternator of
> 100,000 cycles per second, connect one terminal to the
> antenna and the other to the ground, then tune to reso-
> nance. ." That looks simple now, but it wasn't then I
> assure you.
>
> I remember very distinctly the impression I formed when
> Fessenden told me of his plan. First I asked him how he
> could get sufficient voltage and he said, "Several hundred
> volts will be ample, as by resonance I can raise the voltage
> in the antenna one hundred times, which will be all that
> I require." Even then I was sceptical because I didn't know
> of any 100,000 cycle machines neither did he, but he was
> already working on it and after about five years of strenuous
> effort and considerable expense, his first machine was de-
> livered to him at Brant Rock, Massachusetts, in September
>
>
>
> WIRELESS TELEPHONY 149
>
> 1906. From this machine he was able to get 750 watts at
> 80,000 cycles." (Pittsburgh's Contributions to Radio)
>
> But it wasn't so simple as that; there were difficulties and
> intermediate stages of which Mr. Kintner did not know. It
> was a far cry between the high-frequency alternator as re-
> ceived from the manufacturers and the transformation it
> had to undergo before it was capable of giving the 80,000
> cycles required for telephonic transmission. The high-fre-
> quency alternator that was delivered in 1906 by the General
> Electric Company which had been doing the work on it,
> came with the statement that in the Company's opinion it
> was not possible to operate it above 10,000 cycles.
>
> Thereupon Reg scrapped everything but the pole pieces-
> designed a new armature and had it built at his Washing-
> ton shop. After this rebuilding by Fessenden machinists
> under Fessenden supervision the alternator gave from 70,
> to 80,000 cycles and about one-half kilowatt of electric wave
> radiation.
>
> A second dynamo built to a different type in the Wash-
> ington shop with an 8 inch armature gave the same power
> but 100,000 cycles and operated as reliably as any other dy-
> namo until 1911.
>
> To his own engineers, Mr. Stein, Captain Hill and Mr.
> Mansbendel, Reg always felt profoundly grateful for splen-
> did cooperation in this difficult work. To the General Elec-
> tric Company engineers Messrs. Steinmetz, Alexanderson,
> Dempster and others, he also felt a debt of thanks for their
> very earnest efforts to fulfill his admittedly unusual speci-
> fications. They did their best but that best could give only
> 10,000 cycles as against the 80 to 100,000 cycles that he de-
> manded.
>
> When Fessenden had showed the way with his two home-
> built, high-frequency alternators, the General Electric Co.
> began to see light and went seriously to work. As the
> world knows, under Dr. Alexanderson the high-frequency
> alternator was carried to great perfection and Fessenden
> was generous with enthusiastic praise for what he accom-
>
>
>
> 150 FESSENDEN BUILDER OF TOMORROWS
>
> plished. But as far as the world is permitted to know Alex-
> anderson is given sole credit for the invention. It is a good
> instance of what big organizations can do in the way of
> manipulating History, by blotting out here and building up
> there till the desired impression is indelibly etched on the
> public mind.
>
> Many years later Reg in a letter to Mr. Albert G. Davis
> at that time Vice-President and head of the Patent Depart-
> ment of the General Electric Company, wrote.
>
> ". . . Of course for business reasons your company has never
> given me credit for this (High Frequency Alternator), but
> if you will look at the back correspondence you will see
> that I built the first one after the G. E. engineers had said
> that nothing above 10,000 was possible: and that Alexander-
> son, who is a splendid engineer) did not come in until after
> three months running at 100,000."
>
> In his reply of November 15, 1924 Mr. Davis said:
>
> ". . . As far as concerns the high frequency alternator, I
> thought that we had always given you credit for the work
> which you did in this connection. Alexanderson never
> claimed to have invented the high frequency alternator,
> as such, but merely to have invented certain structural fea-
> tures which worked very well in practice. His patents were
> limited to what he invented." (in testimony, Federal Trade
> Commission, Docket 1115, p. 4433. Library of Congress.)
>
> Surely a disingenuous statement. For even though Alex-
> anderson himself may not have claimed the invention, the
> General Electric Company has sedulously permitted and
> encouraged the attribution of it to him, so that even in pub-
> lications such as "The Radio Octopus" (American Mercury,
> August 1931) written to reveal the iniquities of the Radio
> Trust, the writer, Dane Yorke, accepts implicitly the Alex-
> anderson Myth, in regard to conception and reduction to
> practice of this invention.
>
> ". . . During the war, it seems, the General Electric Com-
> pany put into use a very valuable wireless device known as
> the Alexanderson alternator. After the war, impressed by the
>
>
>
> WIRELESS TELEPHONY 151
>
> device, the British Marconi Company offered General Elec-
> tric a $5,000,000 contract provided it were given exclusive
> rights. The deal was nearly closed when President Wilson,
> then in Paris at the Peace Conference, sent two high officers
> of the Navy to protest against the granting of exclusive rights
> to the British Marconi Company. So fundamentally impor-
> tant was the Alexanderson device to wireless transmission
> that without its use the United States would be effectively
> barred from the radio field. The cable systems of the world,
> argued President Wilson's representatives, were already
> under complete foreign control; to surrender air communi-
> cation also would be a tragic mistake.
>
> But Owen D. Young and his associates of the General Electric
> Company pointed out that much money had been spent in
> developing the Alexanderson apparatus. Save for the Mar-
> coni Company there was no real market for it, and thus
> no seeming hope of any return on General Electric's invest-
> ment. Here the official story grows vague. . . ."
>
> Another group of investigators out to tell the truth as
> they see it "Empire of the Air" Ventura Free Press, Ven-
> tura, California, while attributing the invention to Fessen-
> den and referring to the early abortive efforts of the Gen-
> eral Electric Company to build a high-frequency alternator
> for him, appear nevertheless not to know of the two per-
> fectly operative, high-frequency dynamos built by Fessenden
> with which he accomplished regular wireless telephonic
> transmission up to several hundred miles (exclusive of
> freak transmission) between 1906 and the close of 1910.
>
> In the fall of 1906 wireless telephone work went on be-
> tween Brant Rock and Plymouth a distance of eleven miles,
> also between Brant Rock and a small fishing schooner. A
> well known technical journal November 10, 1906 alluded
> rather incredulously to this latter feat. It is headed "A New
> Fish Story" and reads as follows:
>
> "It is stated from Massachusetts that the wireless tele-
> phone has successfully entered the deep sea fishing industry.
> For the last week experiments have been conducted by the
> wireless telegraph station at Brant Rock which is equipped
> with a wireless telephone, with a small vessel stationed in
>
>
>
> 152 FESSENDEN BUILDER OF TOMORROWS
>
> the fleet of the South Shore Fishermen, twelve miles out of
> Massachusetts Bay. Recently it is asserted, the fishermen
> wished to learn the prices ruling in the Boston market. The
> operator on the wireless fitted boat called up Brant Rock
> and telephoned the fishermen's request. The land operator
> asked Boston by Wire and the answer was forwarded back
> to the fishermen. This is a rather fishy fish story."
>
> It was realized that the use of the wireless telephone
> would be seriously curtailed unless it could operate in con-
> junction with wire lines, so relays were invented both for
> the transmitting and receiving ends. Transmission itself
> was more perfect than over wire lines. Since development
> was so far advanced, it was decided on the heels of the
> Machrihanish disaster to issue formal invitations to a demon-
> stration of the wireless telephone. The invitation to the
> American Telephone Journal of New York City follows:
>
> Brant Rock,
> Dec. 11, 1906.
> "Dear Sirs:
>
> A limited number of invitations have been issued to wit-
> ness the operation of the National Electric Signaling Co.'s
> wireless telephone system between Brant Rock and Ply-
> mouth, Mass, over a distance of between ten and eleven
> miles.
>
> The tests will be as follows:
>
> 1. Transmission of ordinary speech, and also transmission
> of phonographic talking and music by wireless telephone
> between Brant Rock and Plymouth.
>
> 2. Transmission of speech over ordinary wire line to wire-
> less station at Brant Rock relaying the speech there auto-
> matically by telephone relay and automatically transmitting
> the speech by wireless to Plymouth, transmitting same at
> Plymouth automatically directly or by telephone relay over
> regular wire lines. Invitations have been issued to the fol-
> lowing gentlemen, " (here follows a list of the guests,
> including Dr. A.E.Kennelly, Professor Elihu Thompson
> etc. and a request to the Telephone Journal to send a
> representative.)
>
> Yours very truly
>
> (signed) National Electric Signaling Co."
>
>
>
> WIRELESS TELEPHONY 153
>
> A report of these tests appeared in the American Telephone
> Journal of January 26, and February 2, 1907, the Editor
> having attended the tests in person.
>
> This article unequivocally confirms the success of this
> demonstration of the wireless telephone and is in the nature
> of a landmark and an historical record; so much so that on
> the occasion of a formal meeting of the Radio Institute in
> New York City, at which Fessenden gave a talk on "In-
> venting the Wireless Telephone and the Future," (Jan. 19,
> 1926) he presented a Photostat and Certified copy of the
> article to the Library of the Radio Institute.
>
> On Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve of 1906 the first
> Broadcasting occurred. Three days in advance Reg had his
> operators notify the ships of the U.S. Navy and of the
> United Fruit Co. that were equipped with the Fessenden
> apparatus that it was the intention of the Brant Rock Sta-
> tion to broadcast speech, music and singing on those two
> evenings.
>
> Describing this, Fessenden wrote:
>
> "The program on Christmas Eve was as follows: first a
> short speech by me saying what we were going to do, then
> some phonograph music. The music on the phonograph
> being Handel's 'Largo'. Then came a violin solo by me,
> being a composition of Gounod called 'O, Holy Night', and
> ending up with the words 'Adore and be still' of which I
> sang one verse, in addition to playing on the violin, though
> the singing of course was not very good. Then came the
> Bible text, 'Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace
> to men of good will', and finally we wound up by wishing
> them a Merry Christmas and then saying that we proposed
> to broadcast again New Year's Eve.
>
> The broadcast on New Year's Eve was the same as before,
> except that the music was changed and I got someone else
> to sing. I had not picked myself to do the singing, but on
> Christmas Eve I could not get any of the others to either
> talk, sing or play and consequently had to do it myself.
>
> On New Year's Eve one man, I think it was Stein, agreed
> to sing and did sing, but none of the others either sang or
> talked.
>
>
>
> 154 FESSENDEN BUILDER OF TOMORROWS
>
> We got word of reception of the Christmas Eve program
> as far down as Norfolk, Va., and on the New Year's Eve
> program we got word from some places down in the West
> Indies."
>
> It is not surprising that it was widely heard even beyond
> the group of Fessenden equipped boats for as he further
> states
>
> "As a matter of fact, at the time of the broadcast, prac-
> tically everyone was infringing the liquid barreter. When
> the broadcast was made, practically every ship along the
> coast was equipped to receive it."
>
> One other happening of this period of the wireless tele-
> phone was a private communication about November 1906
> from one of the Machrihanish operators to Fessenden. He
> wrote that he had been listening at the Scottish station and
> had heard a voice which he recognized as Mr. Stein's voice,
> quoted what he had said and gave the time at which he
> heard him, but so astounding did it seem to him that he re-
> frained from discussing it with anyone until Professor Fes-
> senden should advise him in regard to it.
>
> The matter was at once investigated and without giving
> any hint as to the reason for finding out, it was established
> that on the specified date and hour the words quoted were
> spoken by Mr. Stein in the Brant Rock-Plymouth transmis-
> sion.
>
> The operator's theory to explain the occurrence was that
> Mr. Stein must have been standing near the rotary gap and
> that the arc had been the medium of transmission of speech,
> which was, as Reg said, an ingenius explanation and could
> under certain conditions produce such results.
>
> What the operator did not know was that the high-fre-
> quency dynamo had just been received at Brant Rock from
> the Washington shop and was being tested on the Brant
> Rock-Plymouth transmission. A second time he wrote that
> he had heard talking from Brant Rock and Reg was just
> preparing a schedule of telephonic tests between Brant
>
>
>
> WIRELESS TELEPHONY 155
>
> Rock and Machrihanish when the disaster to the tower cut
> the work short.
>
> In July 1907 the range of our commercial wireless tele-
> phone was considerably extended; speech was successfully
> transmitted between Brant Rock and Jamaica, Long Island,
> a distance of nearly 200 miles, in daylight and mostly over
> land; the mast at Jamaica being approximately 180 feet high.
> 73
>
> DR
> N1EA
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> CW mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/cw
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:CW at mailman.qth.net
> CW List ARCHIVES: http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/cw/
> Unsubcribe send email to
> cw-unsubscribe at mailman.qth.net
> Subscribe send email to cw-subscribe at mailman.qth.net
> Support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
> =30=

-- 
Richard Knoppow
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
WB6KBL