1962 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IRE
Section 16
INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS
Organized with the assistance of the IRE Professional Group
Early History of Industrial Electronics by W. C. White
Industrial Electronic Developments in the Last Two Decades and a Glimpse into the Future by Walther Richter
Early History of Industrial Electronics*
W. C. WHITEt, FELLOW, IRE
Summary-Industrial electronics is the phrase usually employed
to cover the use of vacuum tubes in fields outside of communication.
The term was originally applied to the Tungar Rectifier (about 1915)
and the use of phototubes (about 1927).
By 1930 Industrial Electronics became a growing business. How-
ever, its early growth was slow, because there was a general mis-
trust about the dependability of tubes. Wider use of thyratrons that
could handle currents in amperes was an important contribution;
the development of ignitron tubes, and the use of steel envelopes for
them, were considerable factors; also, such new applications as high
frequency for induction and dielectric heating helped in the advance-
ment.
rf HE TERM INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS is
generally accepted as the use of electron-tube de-
vices in the control and operation of machines em-
ployed in industry. This involves such fundamental ap-
plications as: photoelectric relays; Tungar Rectifiers for
battery charging; railway signaling; high-voltage recti-
fiers; motor control; and induction and dielectric heat-
ing for the control of spot and seam welders.
INTRODUCTION
During the years of World War I and up through the
early years of broadcasting, the demand for new types
of tubes for applications to radio were urgent. As a re-
sult, not too much attention was paid, except in a few
cases, to the use of tubes for industrial applications.
There were a few early non-radio uses for tubes, such
as Tungar battery-charging bulbs and high-voltage
kenotrons for cable testing and dust precipitation. As of
January 1, 1930, there were some drastic changes in the
picture as regards the future and the business outlook
for industrial tubes. Three factors, all occurring at
about the same time, contributed to this situation:
* Received by the IRE, December 27, 1961.
t Research Laboratory, General Electric Company, Schenectady,
N. Y.
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1129
on Industrial Electronics
1) As of that date RCA took over from General
Electric and Westinghouse the manufacture of all
radio receiving tubes and some small transmitting
tubes. They also had the right to take over the re-
maining transmitting tubes as soon as they were
in a position to do so.
2) The big depression of the 30's had started and the
demand for tubes, along with all other products,
started to drop alarmingly.
3) It had been decided that development, design, en-
gineering and manufacture of vacuum tubes had
now grown to a point where they could be di-
vorced from a laboratory.
It is hard to imagine a more inauspicious combination
of circumstances for General Electric and Westing-
house. In order for them to exist it became absolutely
necessary to develop new tube applications and new
types of tubes to take the place of production trans-
ferred to RCA. A great deal was accomplished because
of this urge.
The philosophy of tube work in industrial electronics
had to be quite different than that in radio. In the latter
case, advances in radio communication were largely
based upon new and improved tubes and it was not too
difficult to "sell" ideas and products. In industrial elec-
tronics, however, the situation was just reversed. In the
field of power equipment and control, highly satisfac-
tory methods and devices had been pretty fully de-
veloped and there was no great urge to substitute tubes.
It was soon found that the best approach to this prob-
lem was developing applications that could not be done
satisfactorily in any other way. Examples of this were
high-speed spot and seam welding, motor control (dc
motors from an ac supply line) and railway signaling,
and elevator control and the electrocardiograph. There
1130 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IRE
was a common saying at that time that General Electric
was not in competition with any other company but
rather with the old way of doing things.
THE TUNGAR RECTIFIER
It is interesting to review this development for two
reasons. Not only is it the first application of a gas-filled,
hot-cathode tube, but it is also very typical of the sort
of procedure that seems to have been involved in several
early, highly successful projects. Also like several other
successful tube accomplishments, it was a by-product of
lamp work.
During the spring and summer of 1912, Dr. Irving
Langmuir of General Electric became interested and ac-
tive in the development of the gas-filled, tungsten-fila-
ment, incandescent lamp. These early laboratory lamps
were constructed with heavy-coiled tungsten-spiral fila-
ments that operated at low voltage. The bulb space
around the filament was relatively small so that it would
operate at high temperature and a few drops of mercury
were placed in the bulb. There was usually another por-
tion of the bulb where the mercury vapor condensed
and ran back into the filament portion.
These lamps were frequently tested by operation from
a 110 v dc line through a series resistance. As one of the
objects of these tests was to study the life and charac-
teristics of the lamp at very high temperatures, there
were frequent filament burnouts. It was noticed that,
when the filament sometimes burned out during opera-
tion, an arc formed at the break.
In all of this early work, the primary interest was in
the arc as a source of light and apparently no tests on
the arc as a rectifier were made at that time. However,
one of the men sketched a tube with a hot filament and
a separate anode plus liquid mercury.
Fig. I-Early carrier current equipment installed
in a trolley car (1927).
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May
In the early part of 1915 the possible need for a ga-
rage battery charger was considered and during 1916 it
became a going business.
THE STORY ON EARLY PHOTOTUBE WORK
Photoelectric effects in a voltaic cell were observed
over 100 years ago. The phenomenon of photoelectric
emission of electrons from the alkali metals (such as
potassium and sodium), which forms the basis of mod-
ern phototubes, was first noticed over 50 years ago.
Such tubes, custom built, could be bought at a high
price from foreign scientific apparatus makers abroad.
The U. S.-made tubes were really not commercially
available until about 1928.
During the early years, work on photoelectric tubes
was sporadic, largely because there was no apparent im-
portant demand for the use of such tubes. A few were
made and used for incandescent lamp photometric work.
Although the principle of the photoelectric relay was
demonstrated to many persons between 1920 and 1928,
no one seemed to envision the industrial uses for such a
device.
The factor which really activated the quantity manu-
facture and use of phototubes was the development of
talking motion pictures. Several methods for making
such pictures were proposed. One involved the use of a
black and white sound track on the film. This idea was
the one that finally won out and it was demonstrated in
a theatre in September, 1927. It used a phototube that
picked up light variations from a film track and trans-
formed them into audio currents for the sound effects.
During 1928 a program of phototube development was
started to meet the RCA demand for their photophone
talking motion picture projectors.
Up to this time all phototubes had been made by dis-
tilling the light-sensitive electron-emitting surface of
the alkali metal (at that time usually potassium) on the
inside of the glass bulb, leaving an opening of clear glass
for the light beam to enter. This type proved to be diffi-
cult to make in a factory using lamp or vacuum tube
making techniques. In 1928 the idea of distilling the
light-sensitive layer of alkali metal on a sheet metal elec-
trode mounted on a stem inside the bulb was originated.
This idea we accepted at once. In that same year, the
American Standards Association adopted the word
"phototube" to replace photoelectric tube to designate
devices in which the electron emission resulting from
exposure to light was the operating principle. A photo-
tube, called the UX-868, was used by RCA Photophone
for several years in practically all of their production of
projectors for talking motion pictures. About this time
cesium came into general use for the light-sensitive cath-
ode surface since its spectral response is greater and
more similar to that of the human eye than is potas-
sium. In the fall of 1928 experiments were conducted on
transmitting voice and music over a light beam using, of
course, a phototube for a pick-up device.
By the new agreement with RCA, effective January 1,
1962 White: History of Industrial Electronics 1131

1930, the manufacture of phototubes and their sale for inated but automatic slowing down or stopping of the
television and motion picture use were transferred to train if a signal was "passed" could be accomplished in
that company. The only field left to General Electric a practical way.
and Westinghouse was that for industrial applications. To gain the broad objective there had to be a method
Work was renewed on such applications during 1930, of picking up, on the locomotive, a voltage or current
but, as in other industrial electronic applications, com- of useful value proportional to the values of current in
mercialization was hard, slow work. During 1929 a the rail used to activate the conventional trackside sig-
practical photoelectric relay unit was developed and nals. The amplifying property of the vacuum tube pro-
during 1930 commercialization was underway. vided a means of doing this from coils on the locomotive
Production of phototubes dropped to nearly nothing frame located a few inches above the rails.
during the next few years because the industrial field Remember that it was 1916, five years before broad-
was slow in developing; however, by the middle of 1931, casting, when vacuum tubes were considered expensive,
business had picked up to a rate of a few thousand tubes frail, glass bottles used chiefly by a small group of some-
a year. In 1932 added research work resulted in in- what eccentric individuals known as radio engineers
creased phototube sensitivity. and radio amateurs. The idea of putting them on a loco-
One interesting development was an automatic bean motive for a vital safety device seemed a little preposter-
sorter that was put into commercial operation in 1931. ous even to the early enthusiasts in the field of what was
In this device each dried bean was picked up and later known as electronics.
"looked at" by a phototube. If it were discolored, it was Progress was meager and slow until 1922 when the
automatically rejected. Banks of these machines sorted start of broadcasting necessitated a real tube manufac-
beans at the rate of many thousands a minute. turing set-up. Two types of tubes were developed: a
Although new types of phototubes were developed high-mu triode for voltage amplification, type TC-3
and new uses found for them, high manufacturing costs (later PJ-2), and a power amplifier tube, type TC-4
further restricted the small market and, for a number of (later PJ-4).
years following the outbreak of World War II, very During 1923 the General Railway Signal Company
little progress was made in this work. also became interested in GE's tubes. By June of that
year a few locomotives and a short section of a Pennsyl-
VACUUM TtUBES FOR RAILWAY SIGNALING vania Railroad branch line near Sudbury, Pa., were
Although business in tubes for train control was a equipped by Union Switch and Signal and put into reg-
very small percentage of the volume of tube business, it ular scheduled operation. In 1924 installations were
is significant as the first really successful wide scale in- underway for the Santa Fe, Nickel Plate and New
dustrial tube application. For over 25 years an average Haven Railroads and by the end of the year the tube
of several thousand tubes a year went into this service. demand was nearly 500 a month.
In 1916 the Union Switch and Signal Company of Much of the credit for the successful development of
Swissvale, Pa., became greatly interested in GE's idea this electronic system of continuous automatic train
for a method of transferring the green-orange-red block control must be given to L. V. Lewis, an engineer of the
signals from the trackside into the cab of the locomotive Union Switch and Signal Company, whose vision, per-
in front of the engineer. sistence and resourcefulness brought this development
If this could be done, not only would the danger of to a successful conclusion.
lower visibility due to fog, smoke, rain and snow be elim-
HIGH-VOLTAGE KENOTRONS AND THEIR APPLICATIONS
The Field of Application
For a number of years there have been a few uses for
high-voltage (up to millions of volts) dc for which only
a few milliamperes or amperes were necessary:
1) For electrostatic precipitation of smokes, dusts
and suspended air particles. (Active work in this
field began about 1910 using a mechanical type
rectifier and this business grew and has continued
to the present.)
2) For a voltage supply for X-ray tubes where for
certain applications dc is preferable to ac.
3) Testing of power transmission and distribution
cables. (Due to the capacity between the con-
ductor and the sheath, a very large kva rating of
Fig. 2-1O-kw 50-Mc oscillator with which artificial ac test equipment is required; therefore, dc is pref-
fever was first studied (1927). erable.)

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1132 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IRE May
4) For test equipment to simulate the lightning of vapor. Thus, the current-carryinig capacity of the
nature. cathode for a given amount of heating power is
5) To supply voltages up to 20 kv for the plate supply enormously increased. An electron-emitting fila-
of high-power radio transmitters. (This use disap- ment in space may give an emission of only about
peared after the development of the hot-cathode 50 ma/w whereas in a heat-shielded cathode in a
mercury-vapor tube in about 1928.) well-designed gas-filled tube the figure may ap-
proach one ampere per watt.
Iligh- Voltage Kenotrons 4) In 1931 came the shielded-grid thyratron, the
Before the work on the high-vacuum electron tube principle of which is incorporated in most modern
began in 1913, high voltages could not be employed thyratrons, even if the lead to the added electrode
with tubes having a hot cathode because of gas ioniza- is not brought out to a base pin or other external
tion troubles. However, the GE Research Laboratory connection. The function of the "shield" is to
developed techniques that made such tubes possible and minimize the current and power required to acti-
practical. That same year Dr. Coolidge applied these vate the thyratron control grid.
methods to the making of a greatly improved X-ray The thyratron was announced in May, 1928 and the
tube. Tests using high-vacuum rectifier tubes for smoke word first appeared in print in July, 1928. Actually hot-
precipitation were made in 1917. cathode mercury-vapor diodes were made available for
Due largely to commercial reasons, progress in using use before the thyratron was brought out. There was a
high-vacuum rectifier tubes for smoke precipitation ready market for these rectifier tubes in the radio in-
made little or no progress for many years. dustry, particularly for rectifiers for the high-voltage
plate supply of transmitters. By the end of 1928 such
THYRATRONS tubes were in regular use in several stations. Soon the
'I'he present-day thyratron represents a combination of hot-cathode mercury-vapor type completely super-
several pioneer developmenits: seded the high-vacuum type.
1) In 1914 Dr. Langmuir first suggested a method of Thyratrons, however, found no early ready market
in the radio field and to develop their use in industry
controlling the arc in a mercury-pool tube by took some time and much promotional work. During
means of a grid. He showed how a grid voltage
1929 a line of thyratrons was developed which included
could be used to control the starting of the main the use of an inert gas as well as mercury vapor. These
arc in each rectifying cycle. Thus, the average arc
ranged in current ratings between a fraction of an am-
current through the tube was controlled when an pere up to 122 amperes. Three types of shielded-grid
ac anode voltage was used.
In 1922 Toulon, a French scientist, improved thyratrons were made available early in 1933.
The first real commercial application of thyratons in
on this method of control by varying the phase of
the grid voltage with respect to the anode voltage
rather than to its amplitude. Thus, the arc could
be made to start at any point in the anode voltage
cycle and this resulted in a very practical and con-
venient method of controlling the average value
of a rectified anode current.
Here then were the necessary tools for a whole
new chapter in the progress of electronics. But
they were somewhat ahead of their time and their
value and applicability were not at once appreci-
ated.
2) In 1936 Dr. A. W. Hull developed the idea of
operating a hot-cathode diode in a low pressure
of an inert gas or vapor. As a result, the space-
charge effect was eliminated and the voltage drop
of the discharge dropped to a low and more or less
constant value of 5 to 10 volts. At this low arc
drop voltage, the positive-ion bombardment of
the cathode is not destructive. There results,
therefore, a highly efficient rectifier.
3) Due to the elimination of space charge, the cath-
ode could almost be surrounded by a heat reflect-
ing and heat conserving shield. Only a few small Fig. 3-High voltage, high vacuum tube rectifier for cable
holes are necessary for the conducting ionized testing rated at 4,000,000 volts (1931).

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1962 White: History of Industrial Electronics
appreciable numbers was made in the illumination con-
trol equipment for the then new Chicago Civic Opera
House. This included about 250 small thyratrons in
combination with saturation reactors to dim the lights
in the many circuits of that large theatre. The theatre
was officially opened in November, 1929, and the thyra-
tron installation was highly successful. For its time, it
was a very ambitious undertaking in the new science of
industrial electronic control. A few other relatively
large installations of illumination control were made.
In 1930 active engineering started on the use of thy-
ratrons for the control of resistance welding (spot and
seam). During the next year or two, a number of instal-
lations were made. The first large installation, and the
forerunner of the wide use of electronic welding control
in the automobile industry, came from the Ford Com-
pany in 1932 and numbered 12 equipments. These not
only used small control thyratrons in the timing circuits
but also 121 ampere tubes in the main-welding current-
power supply circuit. Ignitrons were not known or avail-
able for the next few years. As soon as they were avail-
able they were substituted in place of thyratrons for the
power supply control, but thyratrons continued to be
used for the accurate timing and control circuits. Year
by year such timing circuits have become more highly
developed and complicated. Their accuracy of timing
and flexibility of control were unobtainable except by
electronics.
As early as 1930, an installation of a generator volt-
age regulator using thyratrons was made. This worked
quite well and a few other installations followed, but it
took many years for this field to develop. Before 1933
trial installations of thyratrons for synchronous motor
Fig. 4-Photoelectrically controlled drinking fountain (1931).
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1133
exciters, railway signals, telegraph circuits, X-ray tube
circuit control, and motor control were also made.
During 1931 active work started on a system of fire
control for the directing of large guns on U. S. naval
vessels. This system employed thyratrons for supplying
dc to the motor for moving the gun mountings. It was
fully developed and installed on a number of large ships.
At the time it represented quite a business for thyra-
trons.
Building up the thyratron business was slow, hard
work during the first ten years. Unlike transmitting
tubes, there was no active business corresponding to
radio broadcasting awaiting them and engineers in
industry had not yet accepted electronic devices. There
was little competition between makers of thyratrons;
the real and serious competitor was 'the old way of do-
ing things."
Most of the initial successes were in applications, like
welding control, where results were obtained which just
could not be done in any other way and, therefore, ex-
pensive equipment was justified.
SEALED STEEL IGNITRON TUBES
Early Work on Pool Tubes
Work on mercury-arc phenomena was started by
Cooper-Hewitt about the turn of the century.
There was a more or less steady increase in the use of
sealed glass bulb rectifiers in the U.S.A. during the first
quarter of the century. These were used largely for
series arc street lighting and battery charging for elec-
tric vehicles. The increasing use of incandescent lamps
for street lighting, the improvements in gasoline pow-
ered automobiles and the development of Tungar bat-
tary chargers have largely replaced glass bulb mercury-
arc rectifier tubes in the U.S.A.
The Ignitron
In 1933 the Westinghouse Company announced its
Ignitron. Its potential value was at once recognized and
an active developmental program soon commercialized
it extensively. Progress in making and applying Igni-
trons was rapid. By the end of 1934 a welding control
unit using glass Ignitrons was installed in a customer's
shop.
The Sealed Steel Envelope
About the time of the Westinghouse Ignitron an-
nouncement, General Electric was well along on its pro-
gram for making sealed steel envelope vacuum tubes of
various kinds and types. This latter development was
made possible by two other new techniques: fernico
alloy for making heavy current seals with glass, and
electronically controlled vacuum-tight resistance seam
welding.
In February, 1936, the first successful sample of an all-
steel envelope water-cooled ignitron with fernico seals
was built. These all-steel ignitrons sooII largely super-
seded the glass tubes.
1134 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IRE
As regards the power rectifier field, during 1936 the
American Gas and Electric ordered for installation at
Fostoria, Ohio, a sealed steel tube rectifier of about 150-
kw rating for the excitation of a large (30,000 kva)
synchronous condenser. By the end of 1936, this was in
successful operation. Thus, the start was made in what
proved to be an active field of application.
THE EARLY USE OF HIGH-FREQUENCY
INDUCTION HEATING
Early Work
The production of heat by induced currents was
recognized as early as 1880. The heating of transformer
cores due to eddy currents was, of course, understood at
an early date. Probably the real engineering and de-
velopmental pioneer in induction heating with frequen-
cies above the power range was Professor E. F. North-
rup of Princeton University. In 1918 he built practical
"furnaces" for frequencies above 10,000 cycles and
powers as high as 60 kw using a spark gap oscillator.
Largely as a result of the work on radio transmitting
tubes, circuits and their components during World War
I, it was possible in 1919 to produce, in a practical way,
outputs of several kilowatts up to about 1-Mc frequency
from vacuum tubes.
Not much further progress was made until 1921 when
work became active in developing the UV-199 receiving
tube for the new but fast growing broadcasting in-
dustry. This was before the ac heater type of tube was
available and the low filament current of the UV-199
(60 ma) made it a popular type much in demand for
battery operated receivers (even at a price of $6.50 each).
Due to the very small filament, the outgassing of the
anode by electron bombardment heatingduring manufac-
ture was impractical. High-frequency induction heating
of the electrodes proved to be the only practical method.
This at once created a demand for high-frequency heat-
Fig. 5-Photoelectric door opener in a restaurant
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MIay
ing equipment. During the next few years, the use of
induction heating increased in the tube manufacturing
industry and has continued to this day to be a widely
employed technique.
HIGH-FREQUENcY DIELECTRIC HEATING AND ITS
APPLICATION TO THERAPEUTICS
Prior Work
During the early years of the century when "wire-
less" was being developed, the problem of overheating
the dielectric material of the transmitting condensers
was a common one. For many years such heating was
chiefly a nuisance rather than an interesting phenome-
non leading to a possible business.
Actually much of the very early experimental work
was on living things. In 1925 a Dr. Petroff of the
Trudeau Sanitorium at Saranac Lake visited Dr. Coo-
lidge of the GE Research Laboratory with an interest-
ing story. At an earlier date, W. K. Kearsley of the
GE Research Laboratory (now retired) had made up
and given to Dr. Petroff a 2-meter oscillator of pos-
sibly 10 to 15 watts output. Dr. Petroff told Dr. Coo-
lidge that small tadpoles had been killed when placed
near the coil of this oscillator.
Except for a successful and lethal test conducted a
little later on a cockroach discovered prowling near a
short-wave oscillator in a laboratory, little work was
done on this subject until about 1926.
In 1926 electrostatic heating tests were run on mice
and flies. For flies it was found that, for the field strength
available, a frequency above about 75 Mc was neces-
sary for a lethal dose. About that time an egg was also
cooked by high-frequency heating.
Later in 1926, Dr. Whitney of General Electric be-
came much interested in this subject and began experi-
menting on mice in both electrostatic and electromag-
netic fields. His tests covered long periods of exposure in
fields not strong enough to kill or disable the mouse.
Two of his 1927 test results were of interest. The
mouse was enclosed in a large diameter glass cylindrical
tube in a horizontal position with the ends screened.
The coil or condenser plates for heating were at one end
of the tube. For some of the tests, this enclosure was put
outdoors on fairly cold days. The mouse would sooII
learn to adjust its position just near enough to the elec-
trode end of the cylinder to keep comfortably warm.
Also after long exposure, during which time the mouse
acted normally, its tail dried, withered and finally fell
off. However, the mouse lived on. This latter test re-
ceived considerable publicity.
The next step took place late in 1927 while tests were
being run by E. D. McArthur of the GE Research Lab-
oratory on a high-power (5 to 15 kw) radio transmitting
tube under development. The men near the circuits
while making these tests noticed a peculiar sensation
and some complained of headaches. A doctor found an
increase in bodily temperature (fever) of these men.
(1931). Dr. Whitney was much interested as he knew of the
1962 White: History of Industrial Electronics
promising work of others on certain diseases when the
patient was given an artificial fever with drugs.
Equipment was soon constructed to heat parts or
most of the human body between two large parallel
plates at frequencies around 50 Mc. By the fall of that
year, low-power equipments had been sent to Albany
Medical College, Mayo Bros. Clinic and Johns Hopkins
Medical School.
In the summer of 1929 a 400-Mc oscillator using a
small split-anode oscillating magnetron was supplied
to the Woods Hole Laboratory for some biological ex-
periments. This was probably one of the earliest uses of
the oscillating magnetron that was to become such a
useful tool in the radar of World War II.
Fig. 6-X-Ray equipment 1.4 million volts (1941).
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1135
In 1930 the Cudahy Packing Company became in-
terested in using this phenomenon for sterilizing and
precooking meat. Tests were also made on foods, fruits,
fruit juices, hot dogs, vegetables, eggs, nuts, etc., as
well as on the drying of wet materials, including laundry.
There was publicity on some of these tests, with their
frequencies up in the many megacycles. As to be ex-
pected, some manufacturers of medical equipment and
publicity-seeking doctors saw an opportunity. Early in
1931 a New York City doctor coined the name "Radio-
thermy" and this helped to encourage commercializa-
tion. By the end of 1933 a model was in manufacture.
By 1935 a number of manufacturers were active and
equipments were in use by doctors, clinics and hospitals
(and some by rental in homes) treating various aches
and pains.
Except for cooking there was little interest or ac-
tivity outside the field of therapeutics. Some tests were
made on foods, golf-ball cores, gluing laminated wood
for tennis racket frames and rayon drying, but, no
applications resulted at that time. In fact, commercial
industrial use of dielectric heating did not evolve until
1940 when a firm in Richmond, Va., developed the tech-
nique for the quick hardening of the bonding cement
used in making plywood. Pilot plant operation was car-
ried on in a mill on the West Coast.
Shortly thereafter the use of this method of heating
was started in the manufacture of plastic articles for
very quickly preheating the raw material pellets to
soften them just before they were placed in the mold.
Active work was also started in several places on the
rapid thawing and cooking of frozen foods.
In therapeutics the high hopes of some of its pro-
ponents that here was a general curative agent have not
been realized, but it shows usefulness in alleviating the
pain and stiffness accompanying some ailments of
joints and muscles.