128 



♦ KNOWLEDGE 



[Feb. 13, 1885. 



carried on between 'New York and Boston to a limited 

 extent. The great difficulty in long-distance telephoning 

 is the lo33 of the current by static induction on the earth 

 and wires in close proximity. If a single wire could be 

 placed sufficiently high as to amply clear all the mountain 

 tops, one coulJ whisper around the world with perfect ease; 

 or if a wire could be stretched from the earth to the moon, 

 the connection would also be adequate. Peifect results 

 were recently ob'aiced on a Government line in Arizona, a 

 distance of about a thousand miles, the wire stretching 

 over a treeless space of countr3', more perfect far than can 

 now be had between New Yoik and Hartford. The loss of 

 the electrical energy by static absorption and the running 

 together of the electrical waves, is the fact that utterly 

 precludes the possibility of sub-marine telephoning across 

 the ocean. One thing, howevei-, is now certain, that the 

 time is close at hand when the telephone will be p(-rfectly 

 successful iu an unbroken circuit for a distance of at least 

 300 miles ; and that a subscriber will be able to communi- 

 cate with 75,000 commercial houses. More than this, even, 

 it is probable that by means of repeating stations, com- 

 munication can be had over all parts of the United States. 



The changes wrought by the telegraph and telephone 

 will be equalled, if not eclipsed, by the transformation 

 wrought through electrical lighting. Two years' experience 

 proves beyond a doubt that the electric light for household 

 purposed can be produced and sold Ln competition with gas. 



It is immaterial whether the electric energy is used for 

 light or for other purposes. It is so easy of control, the 

 apparatus required so inexpensive, that it can be used as a 

 motor-power for purposes innumerable. In a house it can 

 be utilised to drive niiniature fans for cooling purposes, to 

 operate a sewing-machine, to pump water, to work a dumb- 

 waiter or an elevator, and for a hundred other domestic 

 uses which now require personal labour. In places where 

 small steam-engines are used at great expense, ovNfing to the 

 special attendance requisite, the electric motor will be 

 invaluable. Electricity as a lighting agent has the great 

 advantage over gas that it can be used at will for motor 

 purposes, and that its operation for the latter purpose is as 

 simple as for incandescence, which is done by the meie 

 turning of a key like a gas-cock. The function of electri- 

 city as a motor for household purposes will be hardly less 

 useful than its value in illumination. 



The great problem to be solved, however, by the 

 physicist and electrician, before the art of electrical appli- 

 cation attains its ultimate triumph, is the direct production 

 of electrical energy from coal. The dream of certain 

 French and German scientists tliat it may be transformed 

 directly from the solar energy is a wild chimera, or at least 

 iL is remote and untrustworthy ; but that it will be derived 

 in some simple and inexpensive way directly from coal, 

 which is solar heat and light stored up by nature, the 

 writer believes to be a certain fact. The present methods 

 of producing electricity are, at their best, very cumbersome 

 and expensive. Expensive boilers, engines, and dynamo- 

 machines are the media through which the carbon of the 

 coal is transmuted into electricity, and with enormous 

 waste at that. A large amount of expensive labour, too, is 

 needed, so that with the cost of the plant and of the labour 

 to operate it, the ultimate product is very costly. Once, 

 however, the secret of the direct production of the electrical 

 energy from coal is discovered, a marvellous revolution will 

 take place. The cost to the consumer then will be very 

 small. From one great central station in a city electricity 

 will be furnished to give light, heat, and power to houses, 

 stores, public buildings, factories and workshops, and at so 

 reduced a cost as to materially lessen the expenses of life 

 and work. This is something more than a dream. It is a 



future fact which many now living will probably see 

 realised. Such a direct transformation of coal into electri- 

 city would utilise 80 per cent. ; now by the process of 

 turning the energy of carbon into heat, heat into energy 

 of motion, and this into electrical energy, at least 90 per 

 cent, is lost. 



Electricity as a motive power will not be confined to 

 household or factory purposes. It has already been 

 .successfully used (for exjierimental jmrposes) at Berlin, 

 Paris, Port Rush (Ireland), and by the writer at Menlo 

 Park as a motive power on a railroad. These various 

 experiments have perfectly proven the practicability of the 

 electric locomotive, and indicate that it will be largely 

 adopted in the future in place of the steam locomotive. 



Various experiments have been made with a view to the 

 electric propulsion of carriages, cabs, drays, &c. The draw- 

 back has been that the power has been obtained from 

 secondary or storage batteries, the depreciation in which is 

 so rapid, and the weight of the receptacle so great, that 

 until some radical improvements are made in connection 

 with the storage of elecirioity, or the production of the 

 same directly from coal, we cannot hope to see the subtle 

 iluid used as a means of propelling street conveyances. 

 Still daylight begins to shine on the problem, and the 

 writer has no doubt that eventually most of our trucks and 

 cabs will use this power. When this time comes we shall 

 find the scope of electricity vastly widened, and see 

 carriages without horse-s, yachts without steam or sail, and 

 many other novel adaptations. The problem of aerial navi- 

 gation, too, will then be easily solved. 



The vast deposits of rebellious ores, which for the want 

 of an economical method of working are to-day practically 

 useless, will jjrobably at some date not far hence yield to 

 man the precious metal they contain by assistance of 

 electricity. Though the experiments have not been very 

 successful, enough has been done to show that there will be 

 eventual success. 



Such, briefly told, are the marvels of electricity, as 

 already accomplished, or as marked out on the sure lines 

 of scientific foresight. If the story could have been told 

 as a prophecy fifty years ago, it would have dazed even the 

 most adventurous mind. Yet the other half of the story 

 hidden behind the veil will not be a jot less wonderfuh 

 Tlie writer, in reviewing what he believes from a long and 

 absorbing study of the probleujs of electricity, has only 

 touched on those phases of development which experiment 

 has shown to be within the grasp of the scientific inventor. 

 To discuss its jiossibilities would bring into play a line of 

 speculation seemingly more akin to the dreams of the poet 

 tijan to the sober judgment of the practical worker. 



Makint. Butter by Electricity. — If the anuonnccment made by 

 a French contemporary remains true in practice, butter churn- 

 niakers will, perhaps, have to turn their attention to the construc- 

 tion of other thiugs — perhaps dynamo-electric machines of very 

 low electro-motive force. According to a patent taken out by 3Ir. 

 A. C. Tichenor, milk ia introduced into a vessel of special form, 

 and into it are placed a pair of electrodes, and a current thus passed 

 through the milk. Butter is formed in little balls on one of the 

 electrodes, and it is said that to extract the butter from forty-five 

 litres of milk the current from a dynamo-electric machine equiva- 

 lent to that of about forty Dauiells for from three to five minutes 

 is all that is required. With such a current the balls of butter are 

 sufficiently voluminous to detach themselves from the electrode 

 and float to the surface of the milk. The butter thus obtained has 

 to be worked in a baratte, or something of the kind, so as to work 

 the small pieces into a compact mass. The patent also mentions 

 the electric manufacture of cheese and of removing the bad taste 

 of butter that has turned rancid. We do not know how far the 

 indications of the patent specification have been verified. — 

 Eii'jineer. 



