Newspapers / Zebulon Record (Zebulon, N.C.) / Sept. 17, 1937, edition 1 / Page 9
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Working dfIAGIC with Ligww/Ugat Separate detachable letters lor signs are Hanson's chiet offering to the field of commercial lighting. Having no wires, the letters can be rearranged in any desired combinations. jOCKTAIL glasses that shine as with soft fire when you set them | down, glow-tube signs made of interchangeable letters and free C from cumbersome wiring, ornamental glass models of fruit and flowers that seem to be alive with an inner light —all these are among the offerings ol a California inventor, Earl C. Hanson Mr. Hanson plans his 'decorative radio glassware for use in bars, hotels and restaurants, and other places where novelty effects are desired. He is sure a scintillating cocktail glass will add convivial pleasure, and not lead the drinker to conclude that he is seeing things. All the cocktail glasses, stir s c&ffly < I t { J HI w It " J|||yg 11 ■ _ Hm Karl C. Hanson al work with his oscillator apparatus. ring' rods and ashtrays glitter with bright, flickering light. Pink tights may give some credence to the pink elephant theory. “We are undertaking what we shall call ‘Radio-Taverns,’ ” Mr. Hanson states. “All the tables are equipped with radio-lighted ornaments. Games are being planned using the same principle, and the floor show will fea ture a ‘Dance of the Radio Jewels. Cables are laid under the dance floor and thousands of radio-glass beads are sewed on the girls’ costumes. When they come on the floor the result is dazzling to say the least.” Mr. Hanson hastens to explain that his radio-lighting is not designed to take the place of any present lighting system. These new tricks are based on the same principle that underlies the now universally-used neon signs and other advertisements in glowing tubes of glass bent into letters and other pat terns. It is the commercial and artistic utilization of a phenomenon discovered many years ago in physicS laboratories, and known technically as “excitation ” By Clintie Winfrey A TUBE or other hollow glass vessel is pumped out to a vacuum A very small quantity of a gas, like neon, nitrogen, etc., is admitted. When the tube is placed where very high frequency radio waves strike it, the gas within glows brightly—red for, neon blue for nitrogen a characteristic coin; sL,* T -v jl Jr - B . _ IS' £ V'* fIaRS, 'tjggjz * ‘ »" si, 4„ if *' _> 0 J .1 § ' '‘ l - - *j* *| *, r ' H ' t ~ ' 111 w Inebriates will not be the only ones to see strange lights when the new radio-glassware for bars is installed. for each kind ot gas Mr. Hanson’s contribution lies in the extension of this principle into wider fields which his lively imagination has suggested. The bases of the cocktail glasses, the stirring rods, other objects in the bar are just specially-shaped vacuum tubes. Beneath the bar or table top are concealed the well insulated high tension cables bearing the exciting currents. Larger cables under the dance floor do the same stunt for the beads on the performers’ cos tumes, which are likewise hollow and gas-filled. Mr. Hanson has been an enthusiast about the possibilities of glow-lighting ever since he was a kid in knee pants. Just now he is working hardest on brilliantly lit electrical signs without wires. Signs that light in a greater variety of colors than have been achieved previously. Signs made of m divtflual glass tube letters that can be rearranged into any desired combina tions. They can be made of any size glass tubing. The inventor declares, “Anything a glass blower can imitate, we can give you.” Mr. Hanson doesn’t stop with com mercial signs. He is fascinated by the beauty and delicacy of his radio glass ware creations. He has produced a radio rock garden in which the bridges, tiles, tiny ornamental ddeks and other animals glow with a vivid light as if some power in the ground were caus- §K ~ iiiilihMHSPfiSimr jHuK . S1 ' ‘ /' ’“.,4 ' - - Os ing the inanimate things to gleam. Fragile glass fruit glows with jewel like tones of color; globes send out a variety of eerie lights. Radio-lighting is only one of many inventions that have been Mr. Hanson's chief interest. Many amazing things have become realities through his in ventive genius and that of others work ing along similar lines: underseas ca bles to guide ships; radio cables in the ground to bring planes in to safe land ings; a radio-fever machine for the in duction of artificial fe\er in the human body. CINCE the days when radios were known as “wireless sets” Mr. Han son has been fascinated by radio tubes and their possibilities. When a small boy in Riverside, Calif., he rigged up his own laboratory in his home. At the age of 15 he began build ing wireless sets. He was among the first to receive an amateur radio license. This was in 1912. Mr. Hanson began his scientific ca reer as a civilian engineer with the U. S. Navy. Working with other en gineers, he developed an energized cable system to guide ships and keep them on their course. This cable system is claimed to have possibilities in guiding airplane flight as well. Fog, menace of all flyers, is not so great a hazard when a ship is equipped with a coil and instrument Not an oriental seeress —just a pretty young woman admiring the beauty of this brightly-lit radio-glass fruit. board responsive to cables laid around the landing field. A neon tube instru ment in the plane picks up waves from the cables. It is really a radio alti meter, showing by lights the height of the plane above the field. Experimental installations of the radio-piloting cable have been made at Wright Field, Dayton, 0., and at the Ford Airport near Chicago. A system of cable-laying over dan gerous mountain routes would min imize the hazard of these courses in bad weather, Mr. Hanson feels. His radio altimeter registers not the height above sea level, but the actual height the plane is above the ground Housewives who have been annoyed by burnt muffins and too-brown cakes will find their trials at an end if they cook by the radio-fever method, which cooks the food from the inside out. Mr. Hanson has designed a stove which he calls the “radio range” which he prom ises will insure better meals and fewer gray hairs to the cook. The oscillator is placed in the basement or some other convenient point. Within the stove are receiving coils. The food is placed in pyrex dishes in the oven. When the waves sent out from the oscillator are transformed into heat in stead of light, they have the peculiar property of heating from the inside out Thus, when “radio fever” is set up within the food, it cooks from the in side out, and comes out done to a turn with no burnt edges or sticking to the pan. Mr. Hanson is also experimenting now with short-wave internal heating as a means for producing dehydrated foods. These are now prepared in large quantities, but by more conven tional methods of drying. Mr. Hanson’s method of dehydration is very simple. The food is placed in a pyrex flask with electrical coils around it. Radio heat is created within every particle of the food. This drives all moisture to the surface. A tube goes from the flask to a vacuum pump which draws out the air and the water as soon as the heat expels it. The flask itself is warmed by electric heaters so condensation does not take place. The food becomes dry and hard and while a stiff steak may not appeal very greatly to those who enjoy their culi nary delicacies, Mr. Hanson claims there is much to be said in favor of his new version of our daily earthly sustenance.
Zebulon Record (Zebulon, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 17, 1937, edition 1
9
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