History
The mercury arc rectifier was invented by Peter Cooper Hewitt in 1902 and further developed throughout the 1920s and 1930s by researchers in both Europe and North America. Before the advent of solid-state devices, mercury-arc rectifiers were one of the most efficient rectifiers. Mercury-arc rectifiers or "converters" were used for charging storage batteries and in arc lighting systems where they were found to be more efficient than rotary converters.
Read more about this topic: Mercury-arc Valve
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“If you look at history you’ll find that no state has been so plagued by its rulers as when power has fallen into the hands of some dabbler in philosophy or literary addict.”
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