THREE ELECTRICAL ACHIEVEMENTS 185 



another until the very citadel of final secret is captured. Mr. 

 Hewitt with his simple converter has led the way over one of 

 the most serious barriers in the progress of technical elec- 

 tricity, enabling the whole industry, in a hundred different 

 phases of its progress, to take a long step forward. 



The converter is simplicity itself. Here are two kinds of 

 electrical currents — the alternating and the direct. Science 

 has found it much cheaper and easier to produce and transmit 

 the alternating current than the direct current. Unfortu- 

 nately, however, only the direct currents are used for such 

 practical purposes as driving an electric car or automobile, 

 or running an elevator, or operating machine tools or the 

 presses in a printing office, and they are preferable for electric 

 lighting. The power of Niagara falls is changed into an alter- 

 nating current which can be sent at high pressure (high volt- 

 age) over the wires for long distances, but before it can be 

 used it must, for some purposes, be converted into an alter- 

 nating current of less pressure and for others into a direct 

 current. The apparatus now in use is cumbersome, expensive, 

 and wasteful. Mr. Hewitt's new converter is a mere bulb of 

 glass or of steel, which a man can hold in his hand. A three 

 pound Hewitt converter will do the work of a seven hundred 

 pound apparatus of the old type ; it will cost dollars where the 

 other costs hundreds; and it will save a large proportion of 

 the electricity wasted in the old process. By this simple 

 device, therefore, Mr. Hewitt has in a moment extended the 

 entire range of electrical development. As alternating cur- 

 rents can be carried longer distances by using high pressure, 

 and the pressure of voltage can be changed by the use of a 

 simple transformer and then changed into a direct current 

 by the converter at any convenient point along the line, there- 

 fore more waterfalls can be utilized, more of the power of coal 

 can be utilized, more electricity saved after it is generated, 

 rendering the operating of all industries requiring power so 

 much cheaper. Every electric railroad, every lighting plant, 

 every factory using electricity, is intimately concerned in Mr. 

 Hewitt's device, for it will cheapen their power and thereby 

 cheapen their products to you and to me. 



