272 



ELECTEIC LIGHTING, PROGRESS OF. 



FIG. 5 



The present working of the station the com- 

 pany regards as in every way satisfactory and 

 fully up to its expectations. When the gener- 

 ators are working up to their normal power, 

 six lamps are obtained per indicated horse- 



Pio. 6. 



power ; and while, with the installation but 

 partially completed, the number of lamps in 

 use at the time of minimum consumption is 

 below the normal number of one machine, 



this will not be so when the district is in full 

 operation. Difficulties have been encountered 

 in the working of this station, as was to be 

 expected in a new undertaking of this magni- 

 tude, but they have not been of a kind so con- 

 fidently insisted upon by the opponents of the 

 incandescent light. The lamps burn with per- 

 fect steadiness, and the service is reliable, there 

 having been no interruption of the electrical 

 supply since the starting of the station. 



The only other possible method of supplying 

 the incandescent light upon a large scale is 

 that involving the use of storage-batteries. By 

 this system storage-cells are placed in the 

 houses of consumers, and charged by a cur- 

 rent from dynamos at one or more stations. 

 The advantage of this method over the direct 

 one is the smaller investment in machines and 

 street conductors requisite, as fewer machines, 

 working continuously, can accomplish the work, 

 and as high-tension currents, requiring smaller 

 conductors, can be used for charging. The 

 commercial feasibility of this system depends 

 upon the investment requisite for the necessary 

 storage-batteries, both in the matter of original 

 outlay and depreciation. Very little has as yet 

 been made public, or is, in fact, known on these 

 points, and hence no judgment of the value of 

 this method can at present be formed. This 

 system readily allows of both arc and incan- 

 descent lighting being accomplished with one 

 set of street-conductors, which is not feasible 

 with the direct system. The accumulators are 

 charged during the day-time, when the arc- 

 lamps are not burning, and the same current is 

 then used to support the arc-lamps at night. 

 This is the plan which the Brush Company in 



