Some time ago I posted the info below about the Navy's plans to build
a 4 Megawatt transmitter near Monroe NC including 20 brick antenna
supports each 500' tall - wouldn't that have been something for Ron to
have in his back yard!.
Today I came across a related interesting story - the arc
transmittters that were intended for Monroe were unfinished at war's
end when the project was canceled. One of the 65-ton magnet assemblies
built by Federal was scrapped, but the other was donated to the
University of California at Berkely - it was the basis of the first
cyclotron which earned Dr. Ernest Lawrence the 1939 Nobel Prize in
physics,and led directly on to Los Alamos. The magnet is today on
display on the campus of UC-Berkeley.
So that's the link from NC wireless history to atomic physics.
(source - AWA Review vol 8 1993)
cheers,
Nick K4NYW
www.navy-radio.com
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The severe winter of 1917-18 demonstrated the damaging effect of sleet
upon antenna systems. Sleet-melting systems, whereby 60-cycle current
could be fed to the antenna system at low voltage and high amperage,
to heat them above the sleet-melting point, were installed at all
major stations. The use of this device necessitated an undesirable
stoppage of transmission. It was desired to locate a new high-powered
station inland, beyond the range of bombardment by ships or from
attack by the shipborne aircraft of the time, in an area which had
been free of sleet for the preceding 10 years and yet within
reasonable proximity of Washington. Some location in North or South
Carolina was deemed to satisfy these requirements. In July 1918, Pratt
and Clark were directed to locate a site in North Carolina with
satisfactory power supply, good ground conditions, and nearby
recreation facilities. During the weeks of the survey heavy rains fell
throughout the area and after driving through many miles of slippery,
muddy roads they selected a site at Monroe. Pratt later stated "only
our Federal badges enabled us to get transportation at times, also to
escape village constables and revenue agents."
The plans for this station were unique. The acute steel shortages
which existed in the latter days of the war necessitated the
substitution of 20 brick chimney structures, 500 feet high, in lieu of
four self-supporting towers. The top portions were to be of porcelain
brick which would serve as insulators, thereby increasing the
effective height of the antenna by eliminating the capacity that would
exist between the antenna wires and the lower portions of steel
towers. The bottoms of the structures were to be of such diameters as
would allow them to be used as buildings for housing the powerplants
and transmitters. Federal arc, 2,000-kw. transmitters, which were to
be installed in duplicate, would make it the world's most powerful
station.
By the date of the armistice, the contract for the transmitters
had been made and the future output of many of the brickyards in the
South had been placed under contract. Cessation of hostilities brought
the project to a stop and, to the regret of radio engineers throughout
the world, it was finally abandoned. The idea of using the
chimney-type structures to reduce power losses and to house equipment
had appealed to everyone.
(from Howeth, "History of Communications-Electronics in the United States Navy")
