1.
Feature
(Excerpt
from)
"The SMART-DAAF BOYS"™
•
•
Continued
from above -
An electrical engineer and
television pioneer , he developed a
high-frequency alternator (a device that
converts direct current into alternating
current) capable of producing continuous
radio waves and thereby revolutionized
radio communication. He produced
inventions in such fields as railway
electrification, motors and power
transmissions, telephone relays, and
electric ship propulsion, in addition to
his pioneer work in radio and
television.
••
In the early days
of wireless telephony and telegraphy,
there were no packets of instant coffee
and Creamora laying around, where all you
had to do was add hot water.
•••
As for radio,
television, and the terms antenna and
radio AC alternators, the words didn't
even exist when Marconi and Stubblefield
started their wireless operations. In
fact, to make telephony talk in a big way,
it took over eighteen years, starting in
1892, just to get the government to patent
the first Wireless Telephone™. It
took another 90 years, in 1996 -- before
the first group of Wireless
Telephone™ frequencies were sold to
the general public, by the FCC for
billions of
dollars.
CLICK
TO SEE 1907 AUTO PATENT
DRAWING.
••
•
Alexanderson had been employed at
General Electric for only a short period
of time, when GE received the order from
Canadian-born professor and researcher
Reginald Fessenden in 1904. The Tesla
styled generator, which patent was to
expire in 1906, was converted into an AC
alternating generator with 1000 times
higher frequency than any in existence at
that time.
••
•
In the summer of 1906 Dr.
Alexanderson presented a 50 kHz alternator
that was installed in Fessenden's radio
station in Brant Rock, Massachusetts. By
fall it's output had been improved to 500
watts and 75 kHz. On Christmas Eve, 1906,
Fessenden broadcast the first long
distance voice and music broadcast with
music and talk, playing the violin and
reading the gospel himself.
•••
The big difference in the
Alexanderson/Fessenden 1906 RF broadcast,
and the January, 1902, Stubbblefield
ship-to-shore and land-line voice/music
broadcasts were; the NBS wireless
demonstration were open to the general
public, and his telephony system used
batteries for power, like today's cell
phones. FOR
MORE SEE STUBBLEFIELD and
TimeLine.
•••
The Alexanderson / Fessenen
Wireless Telephony transmission was power
by a generator, and was reportedly heard
by a GE tech group as far away as the
Caribbean Sea.
•••
The NBS wireless RF
transmitter/receivers antenna system used
in the NBS broadcasts, were stationed two
miles apart. The broadcasts were extented
to a 125 mile radius by the use of
land-line connections, relaying the
wireless voice broadcast to Philadelphia
listeners, like in today's WiFi hot-spot
technology.
The
Steinmetz
Papers on Alternating Current
Phenomena
•••
Encouraged by his father who was a
professor of language, Dr. Ernst
Alexanderson learned English, French, and
Latin in addition to his native Swedish.
Thus, he was able to read a copy of Dr.
Charles P. Steinmetz's paper on
Alternating Current Phenomena while
attending the Technical University in
Berlin.
•••
He was so impressed that he decided
to move to America and seek work with Dr.
Steinmetz. He arrived in the U.S. in 1902,
about the same time Marconi was financing
Fleming to produce a stable, dependable
coherer device in which Marconi could
introduced to his grounded earth induction
coil antenna. Each coil had varied
electrical characteristics for each
transmitting and receiving antennas,
thereby enabling him to tuning them to to
each other.
•••This
made it possible for a great number of
stations to use the "air" at one time
without interference.
The Fleming Electron
Tubel Device, the Oscillation Valve was
patented in 1904, as an Telegraphy device.
MORE
AMBROSE
STORY.
•••Alexanderson
first assignment a member of the GE
engineering staff in l904, was designing
generators under Dr. Steinmetz.
•••
It was in this year that Professor
Fessenden, contracted G.E. to design and
build a high frequency machine that would
operate at high speeds and provide
continuous wave transmissions. The project
was turned over to Alexanderson. This was
a two kilowatt, 100,000 cycle machine.
•••
Marconi heard about the News Of The
Success of the new Alexanderson
Alternator, in 1904. Shortly after the
Alexanderson' demonstration, Marconi
arranged for a 50 kilowatt installation to
be made at the New Brunswick, N.J., his
Marconi transatlantic station.
•••
Not content with his development,
he further perfected the unit to provide
200 kilowatts of power. This powerful
transmitter was also installed at New
Brunswick and was used by President Wilson
in the transmittal of messages to the
warring countries in Europe, since the
cables had been cut.
•••
The historical test came on October
20, 1918, when President Wilson used this
station to send the Peace ultimatum which
brought the war to a close. In 1919,
Marconi tried to buy the exclusive world
rights to the Alexanderson transmitter,
but President Wilson had a deep desire to
keep the inventions ''American." The end
result was the formation of the Radio
Corporation of America.
•
•
He designed the Alexanderson alternator, a
high-frequency generator for longwave
transmissions, which made modulated
(voice) radio broadcasts practical. The
only surviving transmitter in a working
state is at the Grimeton radio station
outside Varberg, Sweden. It is a prime
example of pre-electronic radio technology
and was added to UNESCO's World heritage
list in 2004.
----
Marconi soon
discovered that if all Hertz's had to do
is groud a tuning fork properly, to send a
spark of electricity across a room to
produce a visible spark, why couldn't a
coherer be used. Using the already
deviloped coherer in place of a spark gap,
Marconi found that by properly grounding
the coherer properly, the effect would
multiply the distance a thousand times
over the stop gap the signal, he was using
to send Dit - Dahs.
----He
later found out that this was because a
coherer required less than one thousandth
of the energy necessary to produce a
visible spark.
----
Marconi, even as a
Nobel Peace Prize winner, said, "he never
claimed to be a scientist." He always
stated his ability lay in combining
certain facts discovered and developed by
others. Marconi's first transmitter
consisted of an elevated antenna with the
spark gap located at its lower end, the
end itself was solidly connected to the
earth. His receiving antenna carefully
duplicated the transmitting antenna with
the coherer positioned where the spark gap
was. His first efforts succeeded in
transmitting a signal three-fourths of a
mile across his father's estate.
02
/ The
Smart Daaf Boys
Timeline
/ TIMELINE - ERNST
ALEXANDERSON
•
1878 - Ernst Alexanderson was
born in Upsala, Sweden, on Jan. 25, 1878.
• 1896 - Alexanderson
devoted one year of technical work at the
University of Lund.
•
1900 - Alexanderson Graduated
as an electrical-mechanical engineer from
the Royal Institute of Technology in
Stockholm
• 1901 - Alexanderson
spent a year of postgraduate work at the
Technical University (Technische
Hochschule in Berlin - Charlottenburg)
Germany. It was in Berlin that
Alexanderson read "Alternating Current
Phenomena" by Dr. Charles Steinmetz, the
mathematics genius at General Electric.
The book inspired him so much that he
decided to come to the U.S. to meet
Steinmetz and seek work with him at
General
Electric.
•1902
- Alexanderson emigrated to the
U.S. and spent much of his life working
for the General Electric company.
•1906
- Alexanderson had been
employed at General Electric for only a
short period of time when GE received an
order from Canadian-born professor and
researcher Reginald Fessenden for an
alternator with 1000 times higher
frequency than any in existence at that
time. In the summer of 1906 Dr.
Alexanderson presented a 50 kHz alternator
that was installed in Fessenden's radio
station in Brant Rock, Massachusetts. By
fall it's output had been improved to 500
watts and 75 kHz. On Christmas Eve, 1906.
Before the invention of his alternator,
radio was an affair only of dots and
dashes transmitted by inefficient crashing
spark machines.
•
1909 - PATENT
- Alexanderson's
1008577 US Patent Filed "High frequency
alternator (100 kHz)," filed April, 1909;
issued, November 14,
1911.
-
CLICK TO VIEW
PATENT
•
1910 - Alexanderson enrolled in the
famous mathematician and electrical
engineer Charles Proteus Steinmetz'
Consulting Engineering Department, which
afforded him still greater opportunities
to concentrate on continued work with the
alternator.
• 1915 - Marconi who visited
Schenectady in 1915 found Alexanderson's
alternator to be superior to his own
equipment in the big, newly constructed
station. As a result, the Marconi
equipment was torn out, and the alternator
installed. Via the New Brunswick station,
which had finally acquired a 200 kW
alternator, and was placed during the war
under the command of the US Navy,
President Wilson was able to maintain
wireless telephone contact with the USA
throughout his voyage to the Peace
Conference in Versailles, and back.
• 1911 - PATENT
- Alexanderson's 1008577 US Patent Issued
"High frequency alternator (100 kHz),"
filed April, 1909; issued, November 14,
1911 -
CLICK TO VIEW
PATENT
•
1915 - Marconi, who on his visit to
the States in 1915 had desired to buy the
exclusive right to sell the alternators on
the world market, made a new offer to
General Electric in 1919. President Wilson
appealed to General Electric not to sell,
since he feared that the English would in
that event become completely dominant in
the field of world communications.
Instead, an entirely new corporation was
created, the Radio Corporation of America
(RCA), for the purpose of marketing the
alternators. Alexanderson was brought in
as Chief Engineer at the new corporation,
and subsequently shared his working time
between GE and RCA until 1924, when he
returned to working full time at GE.
• 1918 - Alexanderson's
alternator was further developed, assuming
its final form at the end of the First
World War. President Woodrow Wilson's
"Fourteen Points" and an exhortation to
the Kaiser to abdicate were broadcast by
means of the Alexanderson alternator in
1918 in the "Marconi station" in New
Brunswick.
• 1924 - Alexanderson on June
5, 1924, the first wireless telegraph
picture was transmitted across the
Atlantic. This was a handwritten page from
a letter from Ernst Alexanderson to his
father Professor Alexanderson, in
Sweden.
• 1924 - Alexnderson was elected
a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of
Engineering Sciences
• 1925 - he became a Knight of
the Order of the Northern Star, and, also
in that year, a Knight of the Polish order
of Polonia Restituta. These are only a few
examples of the distinctions he received
over the years.
• 1926 - Alexanderson sent the
first facsimile transmission to go around
the world. Passing through successive
relays, the picture was reproduced on
machine in the same room as the
transmitter after just two minutes.
• 1926 - PATENT
- Alexanderson's 1,723,908 US Patent Filed
"Ignition system," (RFI suppressor),
Patent filed June, 1926; issued August,
1929.
CLICK
TO VIEW
PATENT
•
1927 - Alexanderson staged the first
home reception of television at his own
home in Schenectady, New York, using
high-frequency neon lamps and a perforated
scanning disc. On January 13, 1928, the
first television play was transmitted, and
the television transmissions from "Alex's
lab" at General Electric were received and
shown on a screen measuring roughly 2x2
meters with the aid of Alexanderson's new
TV projector.
• 1927 - PATENT
- Alexanderson's 1,775,801 US Patent Filed
"Radio signaling system" (directional
antenna), filed November 1927, issued
September 16, 1930.
CLICK TO
VIEW
PATENT
•
1929 - PATENT
Alexanderson's
1,723,908 US
Patent Issued"Ignition system," (RFI
suppressor), Patent filed June, 1926;
issued August, 1929.
- CLICK TO
VIEW
PATENT
•
1930 - PATENT
- Alexanderson's
1,775,801 US
Patent Issued "Radio signaling system"
(directional antenna), filed November
1927, issued September 16, 1930
- CLICK TO
VIEW
PATENT
•
1934 - Alexanderson was elected a
member of the Royal Swedish Academy of
Sciences.
• 1938 - Alexanderson was
awarded an honorary doctorate by the
University of Upsala .
As a result of the gradual broadening of
its work to cover numerous fields,
Alexanderson's Radio Consulting Department
was renamed the Consulting Engineering
Department in 1928, and in 1933 it became
the Consulting Engineering Laboratory. In
connection with the reorganization of
General Electric in 1945, this laboratory
was merged with General Electric's General
Engineering Laboratory to form the General
Engineering and Consulting Laboratory.
• 1944 - Alexanderson for a
while was President of the American
Institute of Electrical Engineers, which
awarded him its Edison Medal in 1944.
Stockholm.
• 1944 - Alexanderson was
awarded the Cedergren Medal for his
outstanding technical writing in the field
of electrical engineering. The medal was
first awarded in 1914, to Charles Proteus
Steinmetz.
• 1948 - awarded an honorary
doctorate by the Royal Institute of
Technology, Stockholm.
• 1948 - Alexanderson formaly
retired from Genera Electric but continued
his inventing activities as a private
person for a further 20 or so years.
During that time he obtained 28 patents in
a variety of fields. His last patent he
acquired as recently as 1973.
• 1975 - Alexanderson
died on May 14, 1975, at his home in
Schenectady, N.Y.
• 1983 - Alexanderson
was honoured posthumously, when he was
elected, for his invention of the
high-frequency alternator, to join the
ranks of distinguished inventors in the
National Inventors Hall of Fame. Several
of the original Alexanderson Alternators
can be found today in the museum set up in
Grimeton, Sweden. In 1996, one was turned
on during the 80th anniversary
celebration. The station worked just it as
it did in 1916, and transmitted signals
back to the U.S.
03
/ PATENTS
•
•
During
his long period of service with General
Electric, and including his years in
retirement, he obtained a total of 344
patents, of which 11 private, 34 together
with colleagues, and the rest as assignor
for General Electric. Each new patent was
followed by a "latent patent" (a patent
under development) which, when it had been
processed and approved, was followed by
new patents and latent patents in a long
chain over the years. He left practically
no aspect of electrical engineering
untested. It is thus possible, from his
life's work, to sketch the development of
electrical engineering from power
engineering to the more and more important
field of electronics.
An exhaustive list includes all the
patents he obtained between the years 1905
and 1973. He produced inventions in such
fields as railway electrification, motors
and direct-current power transmission,
telephone relays, gun-control
systems and electric ship propulsion, in
addition to his pioneer work in radio and
television. During World War II, he worked
on analog computers for use with radar and
developed military applications of the
amplidyne.
• 1909 - PATENT
- Alexanderson's
1008577 US Patent Filed "High frequency
alternator (100 kHz)," filed April, 1909;
issued, November 14,
1911.
-
CLICK TO VIEW
PATENT
•
1911 - PATENT
- Alexanderson's 1008577 US Patent Issued
"High frequency alternator (100 kHz),"
filed April, 1909; issued, November 14,
1911 -
CLICK TO VIEW
PATENT
•
1926 - PATENT
- Alexanderson's 1,723,908 US Patent Filed
"Ignition system," (RFI suppressor),
Patent filed June, 1926; issued August,
1929.
CLICK
TO VIEW
PATENT
•
1927 - PATENT
- Alexanderson's 1,775,801 US Patent Filed
"Radio signaling system" (directional
antenna), filed November 1927, issued
September 16, 1930.
CLICK TO
VIEW
PATENT
•
1929 - PATENT
Alexanderson's
1,723,908 US
Patent Issued"Ignition system," (RFI
suppressor), Patent filed June, 1926;
issued August, 1929.
- CLICK TO
VIEW
PATENT
•
1930 - PATENT
- Alexanderson's
1,775,801 US
Patent Issued "Radio signaling system"
(directional antenna), filed November
1927, issued September 16, 1930
- CLICK TO
VIEW PATENT
----
MAXWELL'S
ETHER THEORY DIES - November, 13,
1931. The one-hundredth anniversary of
Clerk Maxwell's birth was marked by the
scientific world "digging a grave for the
theory of a luminiferous ether," but at
the same time honoring Maxwell's
mathematical genius.
4.
Related
Stories
/ General Electric,
Engineer. AC Generator or Alexanderson
Alternator Made Fessenden's - 1906
successful.
The
AC Generator
was
used as the power source, along with other
ancillary technologies utilized by
Fessenden during the Christmas Eve
demonstration.
Alexanderson
was
with Fessenden at the time of the
broadcast, using the spark AC Generator
induction system
Alexanderson's
high-frequency 1906 alternator was capable
of putting 700 amperes of high-frequency
current into the Fessenden antenna.
TELEVISION
•
•Dr.
Alexanderson was also instrumental in the
development of television. The first
television broadcast in the United States
was to his GE Plot home at 1132 Adams Road
in 1927.
•
•
Over his lifetime, Dr. Alexanderson
received 345 patents, the last awarded in
1973 at age 94. The inventor and engineer
remained active to an advanced age,
working as a consultant to GE and RCA in
the 1950s.
•
•
Dr. Alexanderson Was a prolific inventer
and his inventive genius touched many
different fields. Some of his inventions
in communication included the magnetic
amplifier, the electronic amplifier, the
multiple tuned antenna, the anti-static
receiving antenna, radio altimeters,
television in 1928, and in 1924 the first
facsimile across the Atlantic, which
included a hand written greeting to his
father in Sweden. In other fields such as
power and control, he designed single
phase motors for railway electrification,
used by Pennsylvania R.R. system, worked
out a system for regenerative breaking of
direct current series motors used on the
St. Paul R.R. locomotives. The amplidyne
and thyratron motors were among some of
the 320 patents issued to him during his
46 years with General Electric Co. (One
for every month, give or take a few
days).
•
•
Dr. Alexanderson retired in 1948 -- but
continued as a consultant for another
year. He was 97 when he died on May 14,
1975, at his home in Schenectady, N.Y. Dr.
Alexanderson was widowed twice, and was
survived by his third wife Thyra and son
Werner; also three daughters and nine
grandchildren.
•
•
In 1983, he was inducted into the National
Inventors Hall of Fame.
•
Stubblefield
• Marconi
• Ambrose
Fleming
• Reginald
Fessenden
• Tesla
• DeForest
• Armstrong
• Alexanderson
• Farnsworth
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Stubblefield02 Research
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RESEARCH
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