MAGNIFYING ELECTRICITY

Evening Star, Issue 20138, 1 April 1929, Page 5

MAGNIFYING ELECTRICITY

REMARKABLE DISCOVERY OPENS REVOLUTIONARY PROSPECTS. Experts of tho General Electric Metropolitan Vickers and other companies are investigating the merits ot what is claimed to be a remarkable discovery by William Harrison, an inventor here, who, after seventeen years of research, is reported to have devised *a machine which magnilies electrical power. Thomas Wood, a Saint Helens councillor, wiio is the provider of the financial backing to enable Air Harrison to bring his invention to completion,, do dared to a newspaper representative that: “The machine,” which has been patented hut as yet is unnamed, ‘ will revolutionise all methods ot power production!” Describing the in vc-ntion, which, he said, betokens a new era for light and power, Air Wood said: “ The machine through which tho current passes is encased in a plain wooden box, six inches each way. So long as we can maintain a vacuum, wo can magmly tho unit ol generated electricity at will. One ol the greatest troubles lias been to get tins vacuum in cylindrical form, so tliat it would bo permanent. This has now been accomplished, " If we said we had gained perpetual motion, we should not be believed,” continued Mr Wood. “You may call it perpetual power it you like, and yet that is perhaps inaccurate, as after a time there would have to be renewals. You can say, howevet, that it is 99 per cent, perpetual power. When we made a thorough test an electric lamp in the room denoted that wo were working at half an ampere, and when our device was put into operation, six other lamps were lighted without the pointer moving, and others could have been added. Trams, motors, trains, and slops could bo run electrically at low cost. All they would reipiiio would be to produce a. certain amount ot power and the amplifier would do the rest. “The main idea ot the invention is i hat while it is giving off power, it is also restoring energy, it will mean that manufacturers will no longer bo deii wildcat on largo generating stations for their power supplies, and that domestic users will ho able to illuminate their dwellings by the aid of small lowtelision accumulators.”

Approached for his views on the C|nostion of Mr Harrison’s invention, aii official of the research department of the Metropolitan Vickers, TralfonJ Park, Manchester, said: “ )ho only conceivable way of amplifying clcctncitv is by some method of producing ‘cold’ electric light. At present something like 80 per cent, of energy in electricity is lost in heat . J f the Joss thus occasioned could be prevented and 111.-' whole of the energy devoted to making 1 cold ’ light, then startling results would be achieved.” EFFECTS MAY BE REVOLUTIONARY. A member of the research stall of Mcssis Ferrantis, Ltd., Oldham, one of t.ho biggest electrical firms in England. said; “.If tim claim that is made ca i be substantiated, even in a small degree, then the results will be simi/ly unimaginable and revolutionary.” Experts of the tit. Helens Corporation, an electricity undertaking, have been conducting tests, and arc reported sanguine as to the value of flic diseovery. They will be given the privilege to first utilise the. apparatus before the device is marketed. 'The mainline installed in Air Wood’s office was connected by flexible wiring to an elecin.; light bulb holder. Wite, at the other end of the box led to half a dozen holders in the room. Switching on power sufficient for one light, tlic current passing through the amplifier gave equal light to six lamps, as the original current would for one. “In one of our experiments,” said Air Wood, “wo had a generator attached t» a, dynamo. 'Between them was the machine. Wo started the generator hy hand. The current it developed was .gassed through the amplifier to the dynamo, and a proportion of flic current was returned to the generator to keep it running. .And it kept on going for twenty-six hours. No other generator without driving power could keep going for twenty-six seconds.

CAPABLE OF “INCREDIBLE DEVELOPMENT.”

“ Air Harrison merely chums to have made an electrical discovery which, in tho hands of the industrialist or the ( led ideal engineer, will bo capable ot incredible development. Electrical power in time may become cheaper ami more accessible than water.”

Air Harrison studied engineering at Liverpool University afterward devoting three years to work on his theory in Glasgow. “Returning to St. Helens,” 'he said, “J fixed up a laboratory in tho collar of our home, where at 3 o’clock in the morning of Alarcli 3, 1927. 1 had the first visible sign of .success. I re,ported the results to Mr Wood. I am. saying nothing until tho world accepts it.”