CHAPTER IX
THE NEWEST ELECTRIC LIGHT
Peter Cooper Hewitt and His Three Great Inventions—The Mercury Arc Light—The New Electrical Converter—The Hewitt Interrupter
It is indeed a great moment when an inventor comes to the announcement of a new and epoch-making achievement. He has been working for years, perhaps, in his laboratory, struggling along unknown, unheard of, often poor, failing a hundred times for every achieved success, but finally, all in a moment, surprising the secret which nature has guarded so long and so faithfully. He has discovered a new principle that no one has known before, he has made a wonderful new machine—and it works! What he has done in his laboratory for himself now becomes of interest to all the world. He has a great message to give. His patience and perseverance through years of hard work have produced something that will make life easier and happier for millions of people, that will open great new avenues for human effort and human achievement, build up new fortunes; often, indeed, change the whole course of business affairs in the world, if not the very channels of human thought. Think what the steam-engine has done, and the telegraph, and the sewing-machine! All this wonder lies to-day in the brain of the inventor; to-morrow it is a part of the world's treasure.
Such a moment came on an evening in January, 1902, when Peter Cooper Hewitt, of New York City—then wholly unknown to the greater world—made the announcement of an invention of such importance that Lord Kelvin, the greatest of living electricians, afterward said that of all the things he saw in America the work of Mr. Hewitt attracted him most.
On that evening in January, 1902, a curious crowd was gathered about the entrance of the Engineers' Club in New York City. Over the doorway a narrow glass tube gleamed with a strange blue-green light of such intensity that print was easily readable across the street, and yet so softly radiant that one could look directly at it without the sensation of blinding discomfort which accompanies nearly all brilliant artificial lights. The hall within, where Mr. Hewitt was making the first public announcement of his discovery, was also illuminated by the wonderful new tubes. The light was different from anything ever seen before, grateful to the eyes, much like daylight, only giving the face a curious, pale-green, unearthly appearance. The cause of this phenomenon was soon evident; the tubes were seen to give forth all the rays except red—orange, yellow, green, blue, violet—so that under its illumination the room and the street without, the faces of the spectators, the clothing of the women lost all their shades of red; indeed, changing the very face of the world to a pale green-blue. It was a redless light. The extraordinary appearance of this lamp and its profound significance as a scientific discovery at once awakened a wide public interest, especially among electricians who best understood its importance. Here was an entirely new sort of electric light. The familiar incandescent lamp, the invention of Thomas A. Edison, though the best of all methods of illumination, is also the most expensive. Mr. Hewitt's lamp, though not yet adapted to all the purposes served by the Edison lamp, on account of its peculiar colour, produces eight times as much light with the same amount of power. It is also practically indestructible, there being no filament to burn out; and it requires no special wiring. By means of this invention electricity, instead of being the most costly means of illumination, becomes the cheapest—cheaper even than kerosene. No further explanation than this is necessary to show the enormous importance of this invention.
Mr. Hewitt's announcement at once awakened the interest of the entire scientific world and made the inventor famous, and yet it was only the forerunner of two other inventions equally important. Once discover a master-key and it often unlocks many doors. Tracing out the principles involved in his new lamp, Mr. Hewitt invented:
A new, cheap, and simple method of converting alternating electrical currents into direct currents.
An electrical interrupter or valve, in many respects the most wonderful of the three inventions.
Before entering upon an explanation of these discoveries, which, though seemingly difficult and technical, are really simple and easily understandable, it will be interesting to know something of Mr. Hewitt and his methods of work and the genesis of the inventions.
Mr. Hewitt's achievements possess a peculiar interest for the people of this country. The inventor is an American of Americans. Born to wealth, the grandson of the famous philanthropist, Peter Cooper, the son of Abram S. Hewitt, one of the foremost citizens and statesmen of New York, Mr. Hewitt might have led a life of leisure and ease, but he has preferred to win his successes in the American way, by unflagging industry and perseverance, and has come to his new fortune also like the American, suddenly and brilliantly. As a people we like to see a man deserve his success! The same qualities which made Peter Cooper one of the first of American millionaires, and Abram S. Hewitt one of the foremost of the world's steel merchants, Mayor of New York, and one of its most trusted citizens, have placed Mr. Peter Cooper Hewitt among the greatest of American inventors and scientists. Indeed, Peter Cooper and Abram S. Hewitt were both inventors; that is, they had the imaginative inventive mind. Peter Cooper once said:
"I was always planning and contriving, and was never satisfied unless I was doing something difficult—something that had never been done before, if possible."