Feb. 13, 18^3.] 



♦ KNOW^I.KDG E 



127 



ELECTIUCITY .MA.X'S SLAVE.* 



Bv Thomas A. Emsox. 



THE TELEGRAPU, TUE TELKPIIOXE, THE ELECTRIC 

 LIGHT AXD THE ELECTRIC MOTOR. 



AMONG the many factors whicU have developpd com- 

 nierce and industry and stimulated all the forces of 

 progress during the last half century, none has jilajcd a 

 part so radical and essential as electricity. Hardly a 

 single nerve or fibre of th it complex body which wc call 

 society, that has not thrilled and vibrated with its influence. 

 It has strengthened the bonds of international amity ; it 

 has quickened all the methods of trade, and lent ten fold 

 precision and celerity to the innumerable agencies by which 

 it works ; it has breathed new vitality into the arts and 

 sciences ; it has even warmed and strengthened the social 

 forces; and in a word one may justly claim for it .'uch a 

 universal stimulus, as cannot be credited to any other 

 purely physicd agency in the world's history. 



It is not yet fifty years since the invention of the electro- 

 magnetic telegraph, made by Professor S. F. B. Morse, was 

 first put into operation between Washington and Baltimore. 

 To-day there is hardly a hamlet so small and remote that a 

 telegraph station does not link its inhabitants with every 

 point of the civilised world. The crude apparatus first 

 used by Professor Morse has been again and agiin 

 itnprovrd on by subsequent inventors in the svme field. 



Only a few years ela])sed after the success of Professor 

 Morse before the first submarine cable operated In America 

 was laid between Caps Piay and the shores of Kew Biuns- 

 wick. This achievement in 1S.")2 suggested to Mr. Cjrus 

 W. Field, we believe, the connection of the New World 

 with the Old, by means of a submarine cable. The history 

 of the first Atlantic cable laid, the jubilee over its 

 triumphant completion on August 6, 1857, its short life 

 of less than a month, the pluck and energy displayed by 

 capitalists in their endeavours to lay a second cable nine 

 years later, the failure of this second eflfort, the ultimate 

 success attained by the laying of the Anglo-American 

 Telegraph Company's, and its final opening as a medium of 

 public traffic on Augu.-t '-'G, 18G6 — all these things are 

 sufficiently well known to most of our readers. 



Closely connected with the development of the telegraph 

 came the invention of the speaking telephone, this being 

 the logical consequence of the former. AVhen it was once 

 found possible to transmit signals over a length of wire by 

 means of the electrical fluid, it w-as certain that sooner or 

 lat€r experiments would be made ultimately with a view to 

 employing the same agent as a means of transmitting 

 articulate speech to a long distance. These experiments 

 reached a successful conclusion in 1876-77 by the inven- 

 tion of the magneto receiving telephone by Pr. fessor 

 Alexander Graham Bell, and the carbon transmitting 

 telephone of the writer of this article. Many others have 

 laid claim to the invention of the telephone, or to so called 

 improvements on the original devices. But so far the only 

 instruments commercially successful are the Bell receiver 

 and the Edison carbon transmitter, now universally 

 accepted throughout the world. 



Coincident with tbe development of the speaking tele- 

 phone, the electric light was first brought to a practical 

 success by the illumination of the Avenue de I'Opera in 

 Paris by the Jablochkoff candle in 1S78. Prior to this but 

 little had been done in the way of electric illumination on 

 an extended scale. The exhibition made in Paris gave a 

 great impetus to lighting as a business. Fiom that time to 



* Fr._>m the New York Tribune, 



the present the progress has bfon nuuvclloud and rapid, 

 only second to that of the telephone. 



Many inventors, among tliem Staite, King, Kosslofl" 

 Swan and Sawyer, had jireviously been exp<'rim(nting with 

 a view to making useful lar.ips giving light by niean.s of 

 incandescence. IJut these experiments hud been based ou 

 fallacious theories, and were foredoomed to failure. Tlio 

 writer wa-s led to the invention of the filament lamp by 

 keeiiing in mind the commercial neces-ities of the case as 

 applied to a lamp forming but ono unit of a complete 

 system. Ilis object, therefore, was not merely the device 

 of an electric lamp ; ho aimed to invent a system of 

 eltctrical illumination which could be operated on an 

 extended scale in the same manner as in the liusiness of 

 gas illumination ; to find some means by which electrical 

 energy could bo turmd into light, and that light be usid 

 for household purposes and sold by ineti'r record — iu shoit, 

 a system superior to that of gas and able to compete with 

 it commercially. The final result of these experiments was 

 the invention of a complt^te incandescent system, and the 

 starting of a Central Station in New York at .'! p.m. on 

 September 4, 1882. Then for the first time electricity for 

 the i)roduction of light was supplied and sold on a meter. 

 This station has been in operation since, night and day,_and 

 has been followed by the establishment of other stations, 

 both in this country and in Europe. 



In addition to the foregoing, electricity has been brought 

 to the aid of metal workers for the purposes of electro- 

 plating and electrotyping ; it has assumed a place in our 

 houses for the operation of call bells and annunciators ; for 

 protection against burglars ; and for the correction of our 

 clocks and other purpo-es. 



Yet tliongh so much has been already done in the last 

 fifty years in the way of electrical development, the writer 

 is confident that far greater progress will be made in the 

 future. We stmd to-day only on the threshold of its 

 tremendous jjrobabilities. Tlie uses to which the electrical 

 energy can bo adapted are so numerous that the present 

 generation hardly dreams of them. Nothing of any 

 startling character can 1)9 expected of the electrical tele- 

 graph. The business has been so long established, the 

 improvements are so numerous, that very little remains to 

 be done. Some day tliere will be, no doubt, a sextuplex 

 system, which will make one wire do the work of six. 

 While none so far tried has succeeded commercially, the 

 expanding magnitude of telegraphy makes it a necessity. 

 This will enable the present telegraphic plant to do more 

 work, and lessen the investment necessary for the instal- 

 ment of any future plant. The necessity for economic 

 running expenses must lead to the use of a system of auto- 

 grajihic telegraphy, which will maljle the telegraph 

 companies to dispense with most of their skilled labour. 



The development of the telephone is in its very infancy. 

 In the first instance, those in the centre of cities alone had 

 the advantage of telephone service ; then the suburbs were 

 reached, and later on towns arljacent The service in citits 

 is by no means satisfactory, at;d between cities and towns 

 adjacent it is far more inefficient. The business has 

 reached such magnitude that it has outgrown the present 

 equipment. The company controlling the telephone busi- 

 ness in this country fully recognises this, and is working 

 with all the talent which money and interest can obtain to 

 improve the service. The result will be greatly to thi^ 

 advantage of the public, and conse(iuently to the commerci&l 

 development of the telephone. 



The efforts made with a view to long-distance telephoning 

 have alrea'ly proved quite satisfactory in a commercial way, 

 and promise excellent results. Converiation has been con- 

 ducted between Cleveland and New Yo'k, aril is now daily 



