WATER POWER AND ELECTRICITY. 



ELECTRICAL POSSIBILITIES. 



IT is not an extravagant statement to say that 

 never before in the history of the world has there 

 been a scientific discovery about which centered such 

 magnificent dreams as are being built up on certain 

 recently discovered electrical principles. "Among 

 these the foremost place, 1 ' says the Springfield 

 Republican, " must be given to the astounding dis- 

 coveries of the young Servian genius, Nikola Tesla, 

 which are so novel and so extraordinary that the 

 most imaginative of inventors are unable to foresee 

 what form their development will take. Just as 

 experimenters were beginning to think that they 

 knew all that could be learned about electricity, and 

 that further improvement must be in the line of more 

 perfect mechanical application, Mr. Tesla shows us 

 the electric fluid under conditions in which it differs 

 from ordinary electricity as much as light differs 

 from heat. A current of 2,000 volts will kill a man 

 in the twinkling of an eye, but this modern wizard 

 lets currents pour through his hands with a potential 

 of 200,000 volts, vibrating 1,000,000 times a second 

 and showering from him in dazzling streams of light. 

 For some time after the experiment ceases his body 

 and clothing emit streams and halos of splintered 

 light. 



" Equally astounding, and with more visible useful- 

 ness, is Mr. Tesla's discovery that currents of such 

 enormous potential and frequency can be transmitted 

 without the use of wires. A room can be filled with 

 electricity from copper plates in ceiling and floor, so 

 that electric lamps will burn without any connecting 

 wire as soon as they are brought in. In the same 

 way intelligence and power may be transmitted 

 without a circuit, doing away with the necessity for 

 trolleys, storage batteries and subways. Mr. Edison 

 thinks we shall yet be able to get electricity direct 

 from coal, a discovery compared with which the 

 philosopher's stone is a mere bauble. Then our 

 steamships will need only ' a snug little bin for 250 

 tons of coal, instead of one for 2,800 tons.' Success- 

 ful aerial flight, electric cookery, a trans-atlantic 

 telephone, a real telescope with which one can see 

 around the world by the medium of a wire, the forma- 

 tion of wholesome food products under the potency 

 of electrical affinities these are some of the things 

 which imaginative inventors foresee. 



" When one contemplates such possibilities the 

 prospect of leaving this sphere induces a regret not 

 unlike that of the French nobleman during the reign 

 of terror. ' I don't mind dying,' he said, tranquilly, 

 as he took his last pinch of snuff at the guillotine, 



' but, hang it all, I wanted to see how it all comes 

 out.'"' 



NIAGARA OF THE SNAKE. 



Proposed Plan to Harness Snoshone Falls. 



The belief is expressed by many who are in a posi- 

 tion to know that the time is not far distant when the 

 great falls of Shoshone, the Niagara of the Snake 

 river of Idaho, will be used to supply power for man- 

 ufacturing and other purposes. 



New developments in the scheme to operate an 

 electric railroad between Shoshone and the falls tend 

 to confirm that belief. 



Negotiations have been in progress for some time 

 regarding this road, and, recently, State Treasurer 

 Hill received a letter from a New York capitalist, 

 who became interested in the enterprise some time 

 ago, stating he was satisfied money could be raised, 

 not only to build and operate the road, but to put in 

 an extensive electric plant to furnish power for mines 

 and manufactories which the same men would, 

 doubtless, put in operation as soon as sufficient power 

 was assured. 



The length of the proposed electric railroad will be 

 forty miles, and if it be built, Shoshone Falls will 



shortly become one of the leading summer resorts of 



the West. 



LIGHTNING AND TREES. 



L ' Electricite gives the results of experiments made 

 by Mr. Dimitrie, in which he subjected different 

 pieces of wood to the sparks from a Holtz machine, 

 and found that they conducted quite differently; oak 

 was easily pierced, while beech was quite resisting ; 

 the richness in water did not seem to have any influ- 

 ence, while the amount of oil contained was of great 

 importance; woods containing starch and but little 

 oil, like the oak and poplar, have much less resist- 

 ance thon those containing oil, like the beech; pine 

 contains oil in the winter, but is very poor in oil in 

 the summer, when it resists only as much as the oak ; 

 by extracting the oil with ether, the woods are 

 as easily pierced as those containing starch; those 

 containing starch are less easily pierced when living 

 than when dead ; the bark and the foliage in all the 

 trees are poor conductors. The conclusions are in 

 accordance with observations, as in a certain case 

 one hundred and fifty-nine oaks were struck by light- 

 ning as against twenty-one beech and fifty-nine pine 

 trees; the danger of being struck as compared with 

 beech is five for Norway pine, thirty-three for pine 

 and forty-eight for oak. 



'7S 



