Rivet Heated "White Hot" by Radio Waves

Radio Record, 9 December 1938, Page 63

Rivet Heated "White Hot" by Radio Waves

ADIO waves were put to a new and novel use recently when, as the erection of steel on the Radio Corporation of America’s exhibit building at the New York World Fair, 1939, was completed, the last rivet to go into place was heated by radio. The demonstration was held at RCA’s building site on the World Fair grounds in the presence of World Fair executives and newspaper men. Robert Shannon, vicepresident and general manager of the RCA Manufacturing Company, Camden, N.J., held the rivet suspended in a concentrated field of radio waves and, in little more than a minute, it was white hot. The rivet was driven into place by H. G. Bonfig, commercial vicepresident of RCA Victor.

"While this demonstration May not be looked upon now as a practical application for the construction industry,’ Mr. Shannon said, "at the same time it is indicative of the many potential uses of radio and electronics." The oscillator unit of a regular radio transmitter was set up on the framework of the building for the demonstration. Usually, the output of an oscillator is directed into an antenna, but in this case it

‘was directed into a coil of wire. The result was that instead of being broadcast over a wide area the radio waves were concentrated in a field at the centre of the coil. The intense heat thus generated made it possible to cause a metal object to become white-hot by simply suspending the object in the field of concentrated radio waves.

The contractors started tne work of erecting the walls and interior of the exhibit building immediately after the demonstration. As previously announced, the building has been designed to take the form of a radio tube affixed to a base and the whole lying on its side, the bottom of the base being the front of the building.. The front will extend the entire length of a 200-foot frontage on the Avenue of Patriots. Present plans also call for a small yacht basin on one corner of the building lot and a 250-foot antenna tower on one side. A sizable yacht completely equipped with modern radio marine devices will be floated in the basin, Special antennae for television and facsimile transmissions will be strung on the radio tower.