Dec. I, 1886.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



%11 



ELECTRIC MOTOES FOR DRIVING TEA 

 MACHINERY, AND THE ELECTRIC LIGHT. 

 It is necessary to correct the over-sanguine ideas 

 of planting correspondents who, because the sub- 

 ject of Electric Motors has been ventilated in our 

 columns, have begun to rush to the conclusion 

 that the same can speedily be made available to 

 them in supersession of steam engines or water- 

 wheels. No such revolution can be anticipated for 

 the present. We are merely in the early days of 

 invention tending to the perfection of Electric Motors. 

 Besides, where a given head of water is immediately 

 obtainable for driving a wheel or turbine, so placed 

 as to be convenient for the erection of a Tea 

 Factory, no improvement can be made upon the 

 practice in force, inasmuch as there is simplicity 

 of detail and direct power available. 



But, there are no doubt, many places in the island 

 where such facilities do not exist and where water 

 power is running to waste from its inaccessible 

 position in reference to the erection of tea factories. 

 By way of exainple, we may point to the Devon falls. 

 A factory placed at the foot of the falls would be most 

 inconvenient. Here we may well look by-and-bye, 

 for the electrical transmission of energy stored by 

 the aid of a turbine at the foot of the falls work- 

 ing a dynamo. Such power could be transmitted 

 by cable to a second dynamo working the motor 

 at any convenient part of the high land in the 

 vicinity, and the former ought to be, we suppose, 

 sufficient for tea machinery on a large scale. 

 This case may illustrate the direct gain to 

 be had by electrical transmission of energy 

 which enables the turbine to be placed in the most 

 favourable position as regards head and supply of 

 water, and to erect distant factories on the most 

 able favoursites. 



As regards economy, the question of first cost and 

 maintenance of working would probably be in favour 

 of electricity against the steam engine with 

 its outlay in fuel and complicated machinery; 

 but here again, we have to wait for that practical 

 experience in Ceylon which is being rapidly 

 matured in the mother country, but which has not 

 yet reached the Far East. 



In reference ti the cognate subject of Electric 

 Lighting we have been favoured with the following 

 remarks from a Ceylon resident now at home 

 who has given special attention to the subject 

 and who is deeply interested in the various 

 practical applications of Electricity which the 

 present day is witnessing. Wc quote as follows : — 

 " You asked me to let you know something regard- 

 ing the progress of Electric Lighting in England 

 and I therefore jot down a few particulars which 

 may be interesting to you. 



" In some respects Electric lighting has advanced 

 during the last three years very materially, but in 

 a pecuniary sense, the position of affairs is not 

 satisfactory. Many of the Companies have been 

 wound up and it is (|uite sufficient to mention the 

 words electric light to cause the capitalist to close 

 his purse. There are still advertisements in the ! 

 papers of batteries of high electro-motive force and | 

 low resistance capable of doing wonders in the way 1 

 of electric lighting, and there is now before the 

 public a Library lamp, " the Regent " which is said to j 

 be a wonder. If so, the sooner the money is found to 1 

 start it the better. No one will be better pleased j 

 than I shall be to hear of the success of any inven- ! 

 tion which will provide a good portable electric | 

 light suitable for reading purposes, but so far as I i 



'IS 



can ascertain, we are just as far off as ever we were 

 from obtaining this desirable article and though 

 such a thing is not altogether an impossibility, 

 there is no lamp in the market which I would 

 recommend any one to purchase for use in Ceylon, 

 " The incandescent light is only suited for enclosed 

 areas, so much so that I am assured by the 

 engineers in charge of the installation at the British 

 Museum, that no number of incandescent lights would 

 satisfactorily light up their vast Reading-Room 

 which is now so admirably illuminated by five 

 arch-lights. Judging from the flicker which is 

 observed in most of the arch-lights which are seen 

 in different places in London, it would appear very 

 difficult to avoid this unpleasant movement, anci 

 I am informed that however much this quivering 

 in the light may be controlled it will never be 

 suppressed altogether. The Reading-Room of the 

 British Museum, where the arc-lighting is almost 

 l^erfect, is the best exhibition I know, of arc-light- 

 ing on a large scale, for not only is this quiver 

 hardly perceptible, but the light undoubtedly con- 

 sumes carbonic acid gas and in this and other 

 ways has a decidedly advantageous effect in puri- 

 fying the atmosphere. 



"Given sufficient horse-power— the most important, 

 consideration— and if due regard be paid to cleanli- 

 ness, Electric lighting may be worked with very 

 little trouble. It is so vastly superior in many 

 respects to gas and oils that it must in time 

 supersede them. Mr. Preece, f.r.s., the other day, 

 remarked at a meeting of the Telegraph Engineers, 

 that no one who has experienced the advantage 

 of having his house lighted by Electricity knows 

 what it is to live until he exists under the in- 

 fluence of the Electric light ; the introduction of 

 which will, he scys, do more good for society than 

 all the sanitary institutions of the world. This ig 

 going a little far, but there is a great deal more 

 truth in Mr. Preece's remarks than most people 

 will be prepared to admit. 



"In Ceylon and India we want alight which is 

 not accompanied by heat. For small installations 

 the engine and its management is the chief 

 difficulty, and I am in hopes that something may 

 be done to take advantage of the wind which blows 

 so steadily at Colombo for the greater portion of 

 the year. I am now endeavouring with the aid 

 of Messrs. Siemens Brothei's to put together a 

 plant consisting of a windmill, a storage-battery 

 and a dynamo. The windmill can be worked day 

 or night in turning the dynamo which will charge 

 the battery. There are difficulties in the way ; but, 

 if an effective and, at the same time, not too ex- 

 pensive storage-battery can be used, there is no 

 reason why the scheme should not answer. As 

 soon as we have given the arrangement a fair 

 trial, I will communicate the 

 "In the meantime, I intend 

 more of what is being done in 

 lighting, in the hope that I 

 something which may 

 Quite as serviceable as 



results to you. 

 to see a great deal 

 the way of Electric 

 may coiue across 

 be useful to us in Ceylon, 

 the Electric light will be 



a good Electro-motor when such 

 vented, but I cannot go into this 



a thing is in- 

 subject today." 



" RusHiNfi INTO Tea," we are told may be one 

 bad result of the perusal of our yesterday" 

 article. But where is land available we may ask ? 

 No one surely would prevent planters who 

 have estates capable of transformation from going 

 ahead ; but apart from this, the Crown blocks 

 the way effectively, by only offering some .5,000 acres 

 per annum of new land for tea cultivation. How 

 long planters may have to wait for the Adam's Peak or 

 other reserve lands suited totheculture, no one knows. 



