Arc converter

1 megawatt Poulsen arc transmitter used by the U.S. Navy around 1918 in shore radio stations to communicate with its fleet worldwide, one of the largest arc transmitters ever built.

The arc converter, sometimes called the arc transmitter, or Poulsen arc after Danish engineer Valdemar Poulsen who invented it in 1903,[1][2] was a variety of spark transmitter used in early wireless telegraphy. The arc converter used an electric arc to convert direct current electricity into radio frequency alternating current. It was used as a radio transmitter from 1903 until the 1920s when it was replaced by vacuum tube transmitters. One of the first transmitters that could generate continuous sinusoidal waves, it was one of the first technologies used to transmit sound (amplitude modulation) by radio. It is on the list of IEEE Milestones as a historic achievement in electrical engineering.[3]

  1. ^ US 789449, Poulsen, Valdemar, "Method of producing alternating currents with a high number of vibrations", published 10 June 1903, issued 9 May 1905 
  2. ^ Poulsen, Valdemar (12 September 1904). "System for producing continuous electric oscillations". Transactions of the International Electrical Congress, St. Louis, 1904, Vol. 2. J. R. Lyon Co. pp. 963–971. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  3. ^ "Milestones:Poulsen-Arc Radio Transmitter, 1902". IEEE Global History Network. IEEE. Retrieved 29 July 2011.