NA TURE 



609 



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1878 



THE ELECTRIC ARC AMONG THE GAS 

 SHARES 



IN Wednesday's Daily News we read as follows :— 

 " Gas shares have been subjected to considerable 

 depreciation owing to the publication of some statements 

 stated to have been made at a meeting in Birmingham. 

 The folly which shareholders exhibit in sacrificing their 

 holdings on the slightest alarm cannot be too strongly 

 deprecated." Among the changes recorded in the 

 official list we find Imperial Continental fell 7 ; Gas Light 

 and Coke, H issue, 7^ ; ditto. Ordinary, 5, and so on, 

 and so on. 



There is little doubt that some excellent fooling (if fun 

 were the writer's only object) on the part of the New 

 York Suti is among the causes of this wonderful ex- 

 hibition of alarm on the part of gas shareholders. 

 But we doubt the fun. Any man quoting the remark 

 that the sun shines on the evil and the good, would, if he 

 combined candour with perfect knowledge, make an 

 exception in favour of the New York Sun. It has a 

 decided predilection for the evil. Nor is this all. Mr. 

 Edison, besides being the most wonderful inventive 

 genius of the age, is one of those rare beings, an 

 American humourist. Indeed, if we are to beheve 

 the Western newspapers, those universities and stock 

 raisers beyond Chicago who hastened, after the manner 

 of our own Oxford, to enshrine his name on the rolls 

 of their illustrious men and beasts, did so not because 

 he had benefited mankind or lived laborious days in his 

 laboratory at Menlo Park, but because a word dropped 

 by him had given rise to the rumour that he had just put 

 the finishing-touch to a swearing-machine. 

 , Here is the New Yerk Stm^s story; — 



"Mr. Edison says that he. has discovered how to make 

 electricity a cheap and practicable substitute for illumi- 

 nating gas. Many scientific men have worked assiduously 

 in that direction, but with little success. A powerful 

 electric light was the result of these experiments, but the 

 problem of its division into many small lights was a 

 puzzler. Gramme, Siemens, Brush, Wallace, and others, 

 produced at most ten lights from a single machine, but a 

 single one of them was found to be impracticable for 

 lighting aught save large foundries, mills, and workshops. 

 It has been reserved for Mr. Edison to solve the difficult 

 problem desired. This, he says, he has done within a 

 few days. His experience with the telephone, however, 

 has taught him to be cautious, and he is exerting himself 

 to protect the new scientific marvel, which, he says, will 

 make the use of gas for illumination a thing of the past. 



" While on a visit to WilHam Wallace, the electrical 

 machine manufacturer in Ansonia, Connecticut, he was 

 shown the lately-perfected dynamo-electric machine for 

 transmitting power by electricity. When power is applied 

 to this machine it will not only reproduce it but Avill turn 

 it into light. Although said by Edison to be more power- 

 ful than any other machine of the kind known, it will 

 divide the light of the electricity produced into but ten 

 separate lights. These being equal in power to 4,000 

 candles, their impracticability for general purposes is ap- 

 parent. Each of these hghts is in a substantial metal 

 frame, capable of holding in a horizontal position two carbon 

 plates, each 12 in. long, 2 J in. wide, and ^ in. thick. The 

 upper and lower parts of the frame are insulated from each 

 other, and one of the conducting wires is connected with 

 each carbon. In the centre and above the upper carbon, 

 Vol. XVIII. — No. 467 



is an electro-magnet in the circuit with an armature, by 

 means of which the upper carbon is separated from the 

 lower as far as desired. Wires from the source of elec- 

 tricity are placed in the binding posts. The carbons being 

 brought together the circuit is closed, the electro-magnet 

 acts, raising and lowering the upper carbon enough to 

 give a bright light. Thelight moves towards the opposite 

 end from which it starts, then changes and goes back, ahvays 

 moving towards the place where the carbons are nearest 

 together. If from any cause the light goes out the circuit 

 is broken and the electric magnet ceases to act. Instantly 

 the upper magnet falls the circuit is closed, it relights, and 

 separates the carbon again. 



" Edison on returning home' aftet his visit to'^A'nsoftia 

 studied and experimented with electric lights. -On Friday 

 last his efforts were crowned v/ith success,, and the project 

 that has filled the minds of many scientific men for years 

 was developed. 



" ' I have it now ! ' he said, on Saturday, while vigorously 

 turning the handle of a Ritchie inductive coil in his labo- 

 ratory at Menlo Park, ' and, singularly enough, I have 

 obtained it through an entirely different process than 

 that from which scientific men have ever sought to secure 

 it. They have all been working in the same groove, and 

 when it is known how I have accomplished my object, 

 everybody will wonder why they have never thought of it, 

 it is so simple. When ten hghts have been produced by a 

 single electric machine, it has been thought to be a great 

 triumph of scientific skill. With the process I have just 

 discovered I can produce 1,000 — ay, 10,000 — from one 

 machine. Indeed, the number maybe said to be infinite. 

 When the brilliancy and cheapness of the lights are made 

 known to the public — which will be in a few weeks, or just 

 as soon as I can thoroughly protect the process — illumina- 

 tion by carburetted hydrogen gas will be discarded. With 

 fifteen or twenty of these dynamo-electric machines re- 

 cently perfected by Mr. Wallace, I can light the entire 

 lower part of New York City, using a 500 horse-power 

 engine. I purpose to establish one of these light centres 

 in Nassau Street, whence wires can be run up town as 

 far as the Cooper Institute, down to the Battery, and 

 across to both rivers. These wires must Ije insulated, 

 and laid in the ground in the same manner as gas-pipes. 

 I also propose to utilise the gas-burners and chandeliers 

 now in use. In each house I can place a light meter, 

 whence these wires will pass through the house, tapping 

 small metallic contrivances that may be placed over each 

 burner. Then housekeepers may turn off their gas and 

 send the meters back to the companies whence they came. 

 Whenever it is desired to light a jet it will only be neces- 

 sary to touch a little spring near it. No matches are 

 required. 



"'Again, the same wire that brings the light to you,' 

 Mr. Edison continued, * will also bring power and heat. 

 With the power you can run an elevator, a sewing- 

 machine, or any other rnechanical ■ contiivanee that 

 requires a motor, and by means of the heat you may 

 cook your food. To utilise the heat it will only be neces- 

 sary to have the ovens or stoves properly arranged for its 

 reception. This can be done at trifling cOst, The dynamo- 

 electric machine, called a telemachon, and which has 

 already been described, may be run by water or steam 

 power at a distance. When used in a large city the ma- 

 chine would of necessity be run by steam power. I have 

 computed the relative cost of the light, power, and heat 

 generated by the electricity transmitted to the telemachon 

 to be but a fraction of the cost where obtained in the 

 ordinary way. By a battery or steam-power it is forty-six 

 times cheaper, and by water-power probably 95 per cent, 

 cheaper.' 



"It has been computed that by Edison's process the 

 same amount of light that is given by 1,000 cubic fe^t of 

 the carburetted hydrogen gas now used' in this way, and 

 for which from 82.50 to 83 is paid, may be obtained for 



BB 



