Sept. 2C, 1888] 



NATURE 



509 



If we take as a low estimate that a large well-made steam- 

 engine burns only 2 pounds of coal per horse-power per hour, 

 the coal consumption which would be equivalent to the waste of 

 power at Niagara would exceed 150,000,000 tons per annum, 

 which at only 55. or 6s. per ton means some ^"40,000,000 

 sterling wasted. And descending from big things to small, the 

 River Avon, flowing through Bath, which, so far from being a 

 roaring cataract, especially in dry weather, pursues its course 

 with only a respectable orderly swish, still represents a certain 

 amount of lost power. It has been estimated that from 25 to 

 130 horse-power runs to waste at the Bathwick Weir behind the 

 Guildhall, depending on the season. If we take as an all-round 

 average that the fall of this weir represents 50 horse-power, and 

 that a steam-engine producing this power burns 150 pounds of 

 coal per hour, it follows that with steam coal at 165. per ton — 

 the price at Bath — the waste at Bathwick Weir represents an 

 income of ^450 per annum, not a princely fortune, it is true, 

 but too large to be utterly thrown away as at present. 



This state of things will I hope, however, be shortly remedied, 

 for, as you will see from the large map on the wall, it is proposed 

 to put up eighty-one electric arc lamps throughout the streets of 

 Bath, and to supply the 50 horse-power required for these lamps 

 by the fall of the Bathwick Weir, supplementing the fall with a 

 steam-engine at dry seasons. 



The next large diagram shows the use that Lord Salisbury 

 has made of the River Lea to electrically light Hatfield House, 

 and to supply electric motive power to the various machines 

 working on his estate. The following diagram shows the course 

 of the Portrush electric railway, six and a half miles long, 

 which is worked by the Bushmill Falls, situated at about one 

 mile from the nearest point of the railway. And lastly, this 

 working model on the table, kindly lent me by Dr. E. Hopkin- 

 son, as well as the diagram on the wall, represent the Bessbrook 

 and Newry electric tramway, a little over three miles in length, 

 which is also worked entirely by water power, the turbine and 

 dynamo which convert the water power into electric power being 

 at about three-quarters of a mile from the Bessbrook terminus. 

 [Model electric railway shown in action.] 



The newspapers of last week contained a long account of the 

 spiral electric mountain railway that has just been opened to 

 carry people up the Burgenstock, near Lucerne, and worked by 

 the River Aar, three miles away, so that we see electric traction 

 worked by distant water power is extending. But, splendid as 

 are these most successful uses of water power to actuate distant 

 electromotors, it is but a stray stream here and there that has 

 yet been utilized, and countless wealth is still being squandered 

 in all the torrents all over the world. 



The familiarity of the fact makes it none the less striking, that, 

 while we obtain in a laborious way from the depths of the 

 earth the power we employ, we let run to waste every hour of 

 our lives many many times as much as we use. 



It is also a well-established, time-honoured fact that large 

 steam-engines can be worked much more economically than 

 small ones, and that therefore if it were possible to economically 

 transmit the power from a few very large steam-engines to a 

 great number of small workshops there would be a great saving 

 of power, as well as a great saving of time from the workmen 

 in these many small workshops having only to employ this 

 power for various industrial purposes, instead of having to 

 stoke, clean, repair, and generally attend to a great number of 

 small, uneconomical steam-engines. 



When delivering the lecture which I had the honour to give 

 at the meeting of the British Association at Sheffield nine years 

 ago, I entered fully into Prof. Perry's and my own views on this 

 subject, and therefore I will not enlarge on them now. You 

 can all realize the difference between the luxury of merely 

 getting into a train instead of having to engage post-horses ; of 

 being able to send a telegram instead of employing a special 

 messenger ; or being able to turn on a gas tap and apply a match 

 when you want a light, instead of having to purchase oil and a 

 wick, and trim a lamp. Well, a general supply of power to 

 workshops is to the manufacturer what a general supply of light 

 or a general supply of post-office facilities is to the householder : 

 it is all part of the steady advance of civilization that leads the 

 man of to-day to go to the tailor, the shoemaker, the baker, 

 the butcher, instead of manufacturing his own mocassins and 

 lassoing a buffalo for dinner. And in case any of you may be 

 inclined to think that we have gone far enough in these new- 

 fangled notions, and we are all perhaps prone to fall into this 

 mistake as we grow older, let me remind you that while each 

 age regards with justifiable pride the superiority of its ways to 



those of its ancestors, that very age will appear but semi- 

 civilized to its great-grandchildren. Let us accept as an 

 undoubted fact that a general distribution of power would 

 enable the wants of civilized life to be better satisfied, and 

 therefore would greatly benefit industry. 



There are four methods of transmitting power to a distance : 

 (1) by a moving rope ; (2) by air compressed or rarefied at one 

 end of a pipe operating an air motor at the other end; (3) by 

 water forced through a pipe working a water motor ; (4) by 

 electricity. 



We have an example of the transmission of power through a 

 short distance by an endless belt or rope in the machine geared 

 together by belts on this platform, and in the rotatory hair- 

 brushes at Mr. Hatt's establishment in the Corridor, Bath. At 

 Schaffhausen, and elsewhere in Switzerland, the principle is 

 employed on a large scale. Spain and other countries use it in 

 connection with their mining operations ; and lastly, wire ropes 

 replace horses on many hilly tramways. Do not look, however, 

 for the wire rope of the Bath cable tramways, for cable is only 

 to be found painted on the sides of the cars. 



For short distances of a mile or so there is no system of 

 transmitting power in a straight line along the open country so 

 cheap to erect, and so economical of power as a rapidly -moving 

 endless rope ; but the other systems give much greater facilities 

 for distributing the power along the line of route, are much less 

 noisy, and far surpass wire rope transmission in economy when 

 the rope must move somewhat slowly, as in tramway traction, or 

 when the distance is considerable over which the power is 

 transmitted, or when the line of route has many bends. 



In the same sense that an ordinary house-bell may be con- 

 sidered as a crude example of the transmission of power by a 

 moving rope, the pneumatic bell at the other end of the hall 

 which I now ring by sending a puff of air through the tube is a 

 crude example of the transmission of power by compressed air. 

 [Pneumatic bell rung.] Compressed air is employed to work 

 from a distance the boring-machines used in tunnelling. The con- 

 tinuous vacuum-brakes used on many of the railways are also 

 probably familiar to you, and the pneumatic system of transmit- 

 ting power to workshops is shortly to be tried on a fairly large 

 scale at Birmingham. 



But distribution of power by water pressure is the plan that 

 has hitherto found most favour in this country. That little water 

 motor at the other end of the platform rapidly revolves when I 

 work this garden syringe, and serves as a puny illustration of the 

 transmission of water pressure. [Experiment shown.] Pressure 

 water has been employed for years on a large scale at Hull for 

 distributing power ; also by Mr. Tweddle, as a means of com- 

 municating a very large amount of power through a flexible tube 

 to tools that have to be moved about ; but the grandest illustration 

 of this principle is the vast system of high-pressure mains that 

 have been laid throughout London, as you will see from the 

 photograph that I now project on the screen of the map kindly 

 lent me by Mr. Ellington. 



The economy of this system is so marked and the success that 

 has attended its use is so great that, did I not feel sure that 

 electricity offers a grander system still, it would be with fear and 

 trembling that I should approach the subject of this evening, 

 the " Electric Transmission of Power." Punch drew six years 

 ago the giant Steam and the giant Coal looking aghast at the 

 suckling babe Electricity in its cradle. That baby is a strong 

 boy now ; let the giant Water look to its laurels ere that boy 

 becomes a man. For the electric transmission of power even 

 now bids fair to surpass all other methods in (1) economy in 

 consumption of fuel ; (2) more perfect control over each indi- 

 vidual machine, for see how easily I can start this electric motor, 

 and how easily I can vary its speed [experiment shown] ; (3) 

 ability to bring the tool to the work instead of the work to the 

 tool — this rapidly-rotating polishing-brush, with its thin flexible 

 wires conveying the power, I can handle as easily as if it were a 

 simple nail-brush ; (4) in greater cleanliness, no small benefit in 

 this dirty, smoky age ; (5) and lastly, there is still one more 

 advantage possessed by this electric method of transmitting power 

 that no other method can lay claim to — the power which during 

 the day-time may be mainly used for driving machinery can, in 

 the easiest possible way, be used during the night for giving 

 light. I turn this handle one way, and the electric current 

 coming by one of these wires and returning by the other works 

 this electromotor ; now I turn the handle the other way, and 

 the current which comes and returns by the same wires as before 

 keeps this electric lamp glowing. [Experiment shown.] 



It might be said that the transmission of power by coal-gas, 



