New Wonder Cell.

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 13, 12 October 1928, Page 30

New Wonder Cell.

May Help Television.

NEW light cell, which its sponsors assert will greatly aid the realisation of practical radio television, was demonstrated in New York recently by the Radiovision Corporation at 62 West Thirty-ninth Street. The device was said to generate or liberate a greater electric current when exposed to the sun’s rays or an artificial light than television photo-electric cells now used by experimenters in America. Considerable electric current was liberated when a _ lighted match was held nearby. The device is being tested for other possibilities in fields of research hitherto unexplored. It resembles a large vacuum tube. Inside the glass eover is a greenish fluid and several . metallic electrodes. . "In addition to other features," said Mr. Edgar H. Felix, vice-president of the company, "it can be utilised to perform such functions: about the house as turning on the hot-water heater, starting the furnace or closing the windows at sunrise. However, the

real value of the cell lies in its possibilities as an aid to scientific research and experimentation. It can be made to operate as an electrical storage cell, chargeable from a small battery, releaising this energy when wanted by the action of the light falling on its surface." » : He said it had been found that the cell, after apparently being discharged or relieved of its collected energy, recovered its full vitality when light was allowed to fall in the opposite plate enclosed in the glass envelope. It also recharges during periods of rest. Cells left overnight, supposedly discharged, have been found recharged in the morning. The company, which controls the Cooley "Rayfoto" patents, is endeavouring to apply the device to the transmission of pictures by this method. It was said to be capable of giving off "thousandth parts of an ampere" of electric current, whereas only "millionth parts" of an ampere are obtainable from the ordinary photo-electric cell.