The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-12-07 00:00:00

JAPANESE WHEAT.

A curious fact is recorded in connection with some
experiments lately made by direction of the Paris
Acclirnatation Society made with some grains of wheat
received from Japan. Very little spring sowinc• of
wheat takes place in France, and as the small land-
owners who till their own land single-handed are
frequently occupied in various avocaLions during the
day, they have very little opportunity for paying proper
attention to their farms at seed time. The uncertain
weather, again, prevailing in October and November
is a great drawback to all agricultural operations,
and especially to such as are conducted in this
desultory manner, often, indeed, forcing the agri-
culturist to sow the inferior " spring" or " sum-
mer" wheat when he has been unable to prepare his
ground for the more desirable " winter" variety. A
suggestion, however, from a correspondent in Japan
has resulted in the discovery that Japanese wheat,
planted in April or May is ripe and ready for the
harvest quite as early as European grown wheat sown
some five or six months earlier, and that the yield is
equally largo with that produced from any of the
varieties of European wheat. The great advantage
derived from the cultivation of the corn in question is
in the additional time available for ploughing and
Preparing the laud, insteal of these operations being
Performed hastily under the uncomfortable and die.
19vantageous circumstances of wet, uncertain weather.
anThesea beelinmefaitets a
da
awdoojuutlird.
nobwent. h of
no u
casesgh 1 y
wherea pr e ci iaabtueudr in
s
seed-time could bel
i abundant, the period
turnedthus t 0
account available
in 1D e f
theore
cultivation of probablyother crops in the interval; or, if this
is not done, thenflnerntclunwateotuoilydb_ benefit by lying fallow
months longer than would otherwise
el°foPrmaredicularaa tsoawrehgiven
r
hf oar
tthher
case.ee or four
u
a any opinion
'Utica have been developed' in
to enabl
the " Jagauebe Wheat" is a new variety of corn or
referred to
tc.arwealiredpeeraitveedd.byWtehper'ivPeatiirrs
peculiarity in the soil,
cEwlimurheothapteeer,ananidwhprasitt:bcnyteolfle locality whence the par-
ticular
however, as
any benefits
that may be derived from the alleged discovery may
Sfacoctiset6 d'Acclimation, in the hope that
be fully realised in this country.—Globc.

MR. EDISON AND THE ELECTRIC
LIGHT.

The Daily News of Wednesday gives the following tele-
gram sent by their Special Correspondent at New York :

Mr. Edison announces that he has perfected a
machine for measuring the current used in the electric
light. It consists of an apparatus placed in every
house lighted by electricity, which registers the
-quantity of electricity consumed, and uses for the
purpose the one thousandth part of the quantity con-
sumed in the building. Mr. Edison declares that his
invention of the light, including the arrangement for
counteracting loss in sub-division, is now completed.
His experiments at present are directed to reducing
the cost. He has, he says, already brought this de-
cidedly balow the cost of gas, and as soon as the
minimum is reached will make the results public.

The Neto York World contains the following :

Menlo Park, N.J., which was named by a Cali-
-than after a well-known place on the Pacific coast,
and laid out as a great city, which still exists only cu
paper, wears just now an unusual appearance of
activity. Carts are continually coming and going
with loads of brick, timber, boards, sections of
machinery, and- other things that go to the making
up of a great factory. All of this is for Edison's
new workshop and office, the first in the rear of the
'Present unpretentious frame building oCcupied by the
inventor, and the latter in front and a little to the
left. Dozens of workmen' and machinists are hard at
work all the time on the buildings, the workshop
being now almost ready for the roof, while Edison sits
in the upper loft of his old shop brooding on the
electric light and trying to keep track of himself.
Edison has an embarrassment of riches, Yesterday
he said to a reporter for the World, "I don't know
when I am going to stop making improvements on the
electric light. I've just got another one .that I found
by accident. I was experimenting
,with one of my
burners when I dropped a screwdriver on to it. In-
stantly the light was almost doubled and continued to
burn with the increased power. I examined the
burner and found it had been knocked out of shape.
I restored it to its original form, and the light was de-
creased. Now I make all my burners in the form
accidentally given to that one by the screw-driver.
The retult is that I can produce the amount of light
given out by the first burner with little more than
half the power. It is almost impossible to calculate
with certainty," Mr. Edison continued, " the resources
of my light, but I have engaged a mathematician
to work out the problem from ray data. One thing
that has always both red persons who have studied
the electric light is the great expense attending the
necessary experiments and the varied knowledge that
the experimenter must possess. You have to know
everything except paleontology and things of that
kind. Then there's a point about my plan that bothers
them all. For example, Professor Barrett, of Dublin,
sent a message to me asking if when one of the lights
was turned out the current that had supplied it would
increase the brilliancy of the other lights. I answered
"No ; " but they can't undertand it. The fact is,
that when a light is turned out its extinguishment
immediately regulates the force of the current so that
only enough is supplied to keep the other lamps burn-
ing.

• I fornian after

-r iit s said, suggested the reporter, "that different
persons have constructed machines to measure the
amount of electricity supplied to each lamp." "Oh,
yes," answered Mr. Edison, "that can be done; but
the point is to construct an apparatus that will mea-
sure the electric current without the expenditure of
force. That is the stumbling block."
" It is said that electric illumination by incandes-
cence requires more power than the light given by a
lamp in which the voltaic arc is used."
, "Yes, I admit that. I admit that a machine which
will give a current for such a lamp as the Brush, with
1,000-candle power, will give my lamp only 500-candle
power. I admit that it may be less than that. But
I can distribute my 500-candle power to make it more
valuable than the 1,000-candle power of a carbon point
lamp. Besides this, in a light such as that given by
the Brush lamp, it is necessary to use a shade to tone
down the glare, and a great deal of the illumination is
thus lost. On these two points I have the advantage,
On the whole I am confident of suecess, however
much any one may be puzzled by my methods or
claims."