POWER. FROM LIGHT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 October 1938, Page 8

POWER. FROM LIGHT

A VEST POCKET CELL. REMARKABLE INVENTION. Three London financiers and a French inventor are marketing an invention which they claim will revolutionise the electrical industry and make their fortunes, and they don’t know how it works. i They call the discovery the helioi electric generating cell, claim it can : produce power from light. The size I and thickness of a pocket match, it can ; be tucked away in the vest pocket. Wired together a number of these “cells will illuminate a house or run a car. There are no coils or other electrical devices. The “face of the cell, enclosed in a bakelight casing, is a thin brass disc. This is painted with a secret compound which it is claimed converts light into a direct current. Among the claims made for this invention are:— There is no practical limit to the amount of power that can be produced without cost of mechanism. By placing “cells on the windscreen or roof of their cars motorists can keep their batteries charged throughout the day. Overseas, especially in the East and tropics, isolated houses will be able to obtain power for lighting, ventilating, and refrigerators without effort or running costs. The project is being developed by a London company. Mr Paul Belyavin, an official of the firm, first demonstrated the use of the “cell” recently. The positive and negative terminals were connected with the terminals of an ordinary electric meter. Mr Belyavin put the cell out of the window. Immediately the needle on the meter swung round and registered a third of a volt and two milliamps. He covered it over, and the needle swung back. “This system is to be manufactured and later installed at our new factories at Slough.” Mr Belyavin said. “The inventor, who is a Frenchman, is coming over here to direct the work.” An official of the National Physical Laboratory said: “We have tested the cell, and it definitely produces electricity. “It is registered on our meter, and we have made a report on it. “Its possibilities have yet to be discovered.”