860 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. ]. 



them by the most scientific and delicate in- 

 struments. 1 know real electricity has been 

 used for the cure of diseases. In tact, Ernest 

 has used it quite successfully recently for an 

 acute attack of rheumatism. It banished the 

 pain instantly. I believe, however, it gave 

 only temporary relief, enabling him sometimes 

 to get sleep nights when he might not have 

 done so otherwise. I am sure, however, a 

 great deal of fraud has been practiced, even 

 \«th geuuine instruments, in applying medi- 

 cal elecricity. No inlelligeut physician of 

 the present day claims tliat electricity of itself 

 cures disease. It oftentimes assis'.s, however, 

 and gives temporary relief, much in the same 

 way that exercise, friction, or manipulation 

 like massage does. 



But for the present I have something dse to 

 talk about. Not only liave I been watching 

 since boyhood to see elactricity used to run 

 cars, but I have been watching anxiously of 

 late years to see a portable electric lamp. 

 Like the astronomers of fifty years ago who 

 turned their telescopes where Dr. Gall told 

 them to look, I have been watching for an 

 electric lamp that would give an instantaneous 

 light when j^ou "pressed the button," but 

 which would stop the light and stop the waste 

 of force whenever the button should be re- 

 leased ; and I wanted this lamp to be portable. 

 I do not like a lantern, for it is a dangerous 

 thing to have around the barn and stables ; 

 and when you want ii in a hurry it is not 

 lighted. For years past, when I have wanted 

 to consult the barometer on the porch on a 

 stormy night I have been obliged to light a 

 Ipntern or carry a lamp (smoking up Mrs. 

 Roots bright clean chimneys), or else light 

 match after match in the endeavor to catch a 

 glimpse of the column of nurcury before the 

 match was extinguished by the blast. 



Within the lasi month 1 have secured such 

 a lamp. It cost only !?2.50. The current is 

 produced by four dry batt-ries. The manu- 

 facturers claim these batteries will run 200 

 hours ; and this time may be made up of 

 flash light, one minute at a time, five minutes, 

 ten minutes, or an hour. You may be a whole 

 year in using up the 200 hours if you choose. 

 When your batteries are exhausted, you can 

 get four new ones for 72 els. ; so you see the 

 cost is only about a third of a cent an hour. 

 Where you use your lamp for fla.shing a light 

 on the dial of a clock when you wake up in 

 the night, and for such purpo>es, it would 

 last almost indefinitely. I have used it for 

 riciing my wheel, and I can easily keep on the 

 walk, or keep out of bad places in the road, 

 the darkest night you ever saw, by the aid of 

 this little electric lamp. The only objection 

 to it is the small amount of light it gives. I 

 understand there are other ones in the market 

 that give a stronger light, but tluy run for 

 only about twelve hours — that is. after you 

 have pressed the button a sufficient number 

 of times so it all adds up twelve hours, your 

 batteries will have to be replenished ; and 

 with this stronger light the expense may be 

 half a cent an hour or more. vSuch a lamp 

 can be turned upside down, or any way you 

 choose. You can push it down into a sewer, 



or use it for lighting up any place where you 

 can not readily get a lantern. In fact, it will 

 light up an overcoat pocket, a rat-hole, or any 

 other place where jou want a strong light to 

 penetrate. 



I have before told you that, with the proper 

 appliances, the same wire * that runs an elec- 

 tric light will also cook food, heat water, 

 apply heat to any- part of the body of an in- 

 valid i, or for a thousand other purposes where 

 heat or any degree of warmth is wanted. 

 This is comparatively well known. Just now 

 I am in receipt of a catalog stating how, by 

 means of an electric wire, cold may be pro- 

 diiced or applied in a similar way. Of course, 

 what I mean by producing cold is abstracting 

 heat. This electric wire runs a motor, and 

 the motor causes animoniacal gas to circulate 

 through pipes large or small as may be desir- 

 ed, so that you can heat one corner of your 

 room and cool off the other by the simple 

 force of an electric current. I made inquiries 

 in regard to the apparatus, with the view of 

 keeping my potato cellar so the potatoes 

 would not sprout, even in the month of June. 

 I can keep our cellar cold very well until 

 along in March, without any apparatus. After 

 that, with the aid of the cold-machine, during 

 occasional warm spells I can keep the potatoes 

 j'ist riglit to plant, or for table use. Of course, 

 this has already been done by the use of ice. 

 But ice is expensive, bulky, and is apt to be 

 slopp3\ Our potato-cellar is already lighted 

 by turning the button of an electric lamp 

 when we want to go into it. Now. if I can, 

 by turning another button, cool it off when it 

 gets too warm, 1 shall be quite happy — or at 

 leist I think I shall. The electrical refriger- 

 ating apparatus is going to be superior to an 

 ice-chei^t because you can have it close up to 

 the dining-room and you can have your heat 

 and cold so near each other as to save many 

 steps. When the good wife can, by suitable 

 ar angements, avoid the necessity' of keeping 

 a hired girl, i; is quite a saving in money, and 

 sometimes a saving in nerves. Don't under- 

 stand that I am tilling at the average help in 

 the home ; but I have been thinking that, if 

 electricity shovdd begin to encroacli on the 

 domain of the hired girl, it might have a 

 wholesome effect — we will say on the home, 

 for instance. t 



Once more, in a recent number of the Scien- 

 tific American I saw a picture of a dynamo 

 and water-motor combined. The price is only 

 $8 00. Tlie said dynamo has capacity enough 

 to run. a single lamp. I wrote the manufac- 

 turers, .saying that, whether they knew it or 

 not, Ihey were coming pretty near solving: the 

 problem of making tiie wind or wintry blast, 

 as it passes over our homes, furnish the light 

 for the home circle. On figuring it up, how- 

 ever, I found that, at the present stage of 



*Wheti I ii.se the expres.sion " wire," I mean the 

 usual combination of tivo wires used f'>r the ordinary 

 electric lamp. The Klectropoi.'e and Oxydonor peo- 

 ple are the only ones I ever heard of who propose to 

 .send aity thing through a single wire. 



■f Since the above was written 1 have received prices 

 on the refrigerating-apparatus men-.ioned. At pres- 

 ent the smallest size co.sts 3300, which, f r the time be- 

 ing at least, will keep it out of our potato cellar. 



