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Show MOUNTAIN STATES SOLAR BATTERY IS IMPROVING IN PERFORMANCE The cITU-ioiu-y of the IU-11 Si !;ir Hatton - man's first sue-cos.vlul sue-cos.vlul device lor converting sun-1 sun-1 ;;hl d;rt'clly into substantial amounts of electricity has been practically doubled in the one year fimv its announcement, according to Gerald 1:. Vickers, nr 'iag.1' of Mountain Slates Te'-v'hiMie. In !l '"Vlcphone Laboratories .- cent '.Ms have increased the battery's bat-tery's efficiency to 11 per cent comparable to the efficiency of the best gasoline engines. When first shown, the battery had a (i ' ''i ll' efficiency. Mr. Vickers said the announcement announce-ment of tlr.s new stride toward utilizing the sun's energy came h: i : ly al'icr Hell seienl ists had also succeiHled in developing a miniature electronic "brain", .'pable of computing complex malhemalical problems in l,r) thousandths of a seeoiu1 The new electronic 'brain", called TRADIC (for Tr.msistor-n;gila' Tr.msistor-n;gila' Computer), was developed devel-oped 'for the United Slates Air T'Yi'o and can operate fawleisly n plain's flying at supersonic speed. It uses transistors, and other laboratories development, instead cf vacum lubes and is b. !:eved to be the first all trans-b trans-b .o-comuter de igned for air-I air-I raft. It is capable of doing GU,-000 GU,-000 add tions or subtraction, or 3.000 multiplication or divi-I sions, a second. It can run thru I an entire problem requiring about 250 different steps of com- pulation in les time than it takes I to say "Tradic." "Tradic uses the same tech-' tuques that may one clay in the j not too distant future be applied I to the telephone central office) .present systems," Mr. Vickers i I sa:d. j J The battery will have its first i practical test as part of the telephone tele-phone system this summer in Americus, Georgia, where experiments exper-iments will determine the usefulness use-fulness of the battery in supplying supply-ing power on rural telephon ; I lines. |