07 Mar 2016

History:

Lost Capitol Hill: Professor Way’s Light

Hungerford bridge tnDuring my recent talk for the Smithsonian Associates, I was asked if any research on radio equipment had been done at the Washington Navy Yard. I was not aware of any (though it turns out that there was some activity in that regard during the First World War; more on that in a later column) but I knew that other things had been done there – including research into signaling using light during the Civil War.

The question of how to signal between ships (or from ship to shore) was as old as sailing. Eventually, a system was developed using flags, and by the time the Civil War rolled around, this method was a well-established form of communication. There were some serious drawbacks to it, not the least being that it did not work at all in the absence of light. Thus, efforts were made to improve on the state of affairs.

Light made using electricity was a new invention during the Civil War, and in spite of the inventions of Sir Humphrey Davy (carbon arc lamps) and James Bowman Lindsey (incandescent lights), the ability to produce light using this new technology was still very limited.

Enter John Thomas Way. Mainly known for his agricultural interests, Professor Way (as he was generally referred to) was also interested in the production of light. Building on experiments of Sir Humphrey Davy, in which light was produced using an electrical arc between a wire and a pool of mercury, as well as his carbon arc lamp, Way created the first usable mercury lamp, and, in 1857, received a British patent on it. Like a carbon arc lamp, the light was generated at the electrode tip, but some mercury was also turned into gas, and created a much brighter light.

Three years later, Way proved the viability of his patent by lighting the Hungerford Bridge (pic) in London with it.

The following year found him in the United States, and the Washington Navy Yard. On September 16, 1861, the National Republican published a brief article entitled “Navy Yard” in which it stated that

Professor Way, who has won great merit for his new method of signalizing by means of electricity and a mercury reflector, met with entire success on Saturday in the experimental trial.

The ability to signalize over large distance in the night would indeed have been of profound interest to the Navy. Sadly, there does not seem to have been much further work done in this direction. A few weeks later, Way would receive US Patents #33,457 and 33,458 for his invention, which was described as using “two flowing electrodes, such as two streams of mercury.”

Drawing from Patent #33,458 (Google Patent)

Drawing from Patent #33,458 (Google Patent)

This was also the serious problem with his invention: The mercury was not well-shielded from the outside world; along with light, a certain amount of mercury vapor would escape into the surrounding area. Some went as far as to claim that Professor Way eventually succumbed to mercury poisoning. However, instead he returned to his original interest of the use of chemistry in agriculture and continued on this important work until his death in 1883, at the age of 63.

It would be a few years after the end of the Civil War that the British Navy would pioneer signaling lamps; the first truly successful Mercury lamp would not be produced until the early 20th Century.


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