The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-11-02 00:00:00

The New York Herald of October 18 contains a re-
port of a further interview with Mr. Edison. That
paper says:—

"The fierce denunciations of the gas companies at the
latest discovery of Mr. Edison have produced no effect on
the serenity of the Menlo Park Laboratory. When Mr.
Edison was told that eminent scientists and prominent gas
company officials pronounced his alleged discovery concern-
ing the electric light a sham, and offered to prove by
figures and fact that a division of the electric light to any
practical extent was impossible, he smiled imperturbably
and gave orders that a new 80-horsepower engine be at once
placed in operation, and that more workmen be added to
the number already engaged in manufacturing the appa-
ratus. A Herald reporter yesterday visited the laboratoty
to learn the , rogress of the invention. Mr. Edison had gone
to New York, and was not expected back until night. His
numerous workinen, however, were busily engaged at their
different places. On the door leading to the laboratory the
reporter noticed a large placard announcing that there was
positively no admittance. One of Mr. Edison's assistants
said, 'We were obliged to close the doors, because the
foreign patents have not yet been heard from. In a couple
of weeks, however, perhaps less, all will be free again, and
then the sceptics may see for themselves, but until then,
nobody will be allowed to see it." Bat scientific men say
that the thing is impossi)le,' observed the reporter, And
so they said the quadruplex telegraph was impossible,'
answered the assistant. 'Let them say what they please,'
continued he, we, who know what Mr. Edison is doing,
are satisfied that he has succeeded.' At a late hour the
Professor returned fgom New York, The reporter met him
at the dept.% and asked him how he was progressing with
the practical division of the electric light. Everything is
going along all right,' answered the inventor. Have you
heard what scientific men say about it ?'asked the reporter,
What do they say ' inquired the inventor. That it is
impossible." Well, we will see,' was Mr. Edison's smiling
reply, as he prepared to go. They say that the electric
light will not bear subdivision, except at enormous
sacrifice of illuminating power,' continued the writer.
There is no sacrifice of power in this discovery,'
answered the inventor. Those who are denouncing it as
impossible are predicting on what they have not seen and
do not understand. The invention is a new aeparture. I
believe that I have succeeded beyond all doubt. In a little
while all who doubt it may see for themselves.. The asser-
tions that are made in opposition are based on systems that
have been tried and found defective. In a little while I
will light up all the houses in Menlo Park and then the
scientific men can, if they desire, come and see. At present,
however, I can say no more than that we are hard at work
on it in the laboratory, and mean to lose no time.' Bidding
the reporter good night, the inventor then hurried in to his
laboratory."

The municipal authorities in Liverpool contemplate
taking a-tive measures for the introduction of the
electric light into the town, for use both in the
thoroughfares and in public buildings and in private
houses. At the meeting of the Town Council last
week, a recommendation is to he considered for apply-
ing to Parliament next session for Powers to execute
all the necessary works for the purpose, the sum of
£2,000 being asked for to cover the expenses of the ap-
plication. A motion is also to be made that the pro-
posed purchase of the Gas Company's stock and busi-
ness should be postponed in view of the progress
which the electiic light is making towards adapta-
bility for general purposes. A third motion is to be
proposed to the effect that the borough engineer be in-
structed to report upon the light, to examine its work-
ing in Paris, and to confer with the engineers of the
City of London and the Metropolitan Board of Works
on the subject.

The Daily Telegraph (in a leader) notes that "the
alarm among owners of gas property has extended
even to Rome, where the question of lighting by
electricity has been raised in a practical form by a pro-
posal from an enterprising Paris firm to illuminate
certain of the streets and piazzas with the new agent
on the occasion of the entry which the King and
Queen are expected shortly to make. The idea is ex-
cellent; Rome under the electric light would display
picturesque effects, and weird and striking contrasts,
such as certainly no other city in the world could pro-
duce. Shedding its rays from the battlements of Fort
St. Angelo; from the balcony in front of St. Peter's,
whence the benediction ui bi et orbi used to be given ;
from the top of the uttermost tier of the Coliseum, il-
luminating all the space past the ruins of the Palace of
the Ctesars on to the Arch of Titus; in the gardens of
the Pincian Hill; in front of the Church of Santa
Maria Maggiore, or from the summit of the Column of
Trajan, or, best of all, in the labyrinthine recesses of
the Catacombs, the spectacle would lack no element of
the romantic, while the sordid details visible enough
in open day would either be lost altogether or trans-
formed by the witchery of the novel radiance into
something new and strange,' 134 neither common nor
repulsive. On grounds of public safety, of course,
the attempt would have much to recommend it. To
keep up a sort of artificial daylight in the neighbour-
hood of the Ghetto, or in the Trastevere suburb, would
deprive a good many loose characters of their chance
of booty, and make it possible for strangers to move
about after dark with comparative safety, which can-
not be said of the present system. A late Pope
anathematised gas ; but there is no fear of King Hum-
bert treating the electric light so harshly."

"Electricity is now put in action successfuly for light-
ing and—if we may believe Mr. Edison—for motive
purposes as well. How long will it be before the great
force becomes it own generator, so that it can be used
by itself as a motive power? More wonderful die-
coverits have lately been achieved by advancing science,
and we have only to wait in order to see the mechan-
ical resources of mankind brought to a perfection at
present hardly dreamed of. Electricity is about to
supersede gas, we are told. When will it supersede
steam ?"—Mark Lane Express.

Mr. Frederic • Maccabe exhibited Jablochkoff's
electric light at the Aston Lower Grounds, Birming-
ham, on Monday night, on the occasion of a football
match, and in spite of a heavy wind and storm the
affair proved a success. At a distance of nearly a
thouand yards everything seemed as clear as noonday,
and cheers after cheers were given for Mr. Maccabe.
It appears from the New York papers that a company has
been started in N, w York called "The Edison F.lectric
Lictdit Company;" with a capital of 300,000 dole. (says The
Timef) TN object of the company is stated generally to be
'the production of heat, light, and power by electricity."
The present object, however, is to supply a land which
is to assist Mr. Edison in carrying forward his experi-
ments to a point where he shall give a positive demonstra-
tion of the powers of his new inventions. Prec'sely what
these inventions are. in all their details of transmission of
force and the multiplication of the light derived from
electricity, Mr. Edison has not 3et told to anybody, fearing
that the devices may be patented abroad. The invention,
as to the ute of electric lights, it is said, will not include the
use of carhop points, as oldirlariiy known in electric lights,
but instead the Incandescence of a metal simpler and cheaper
In every way. Mr. Edison has determined upon the g ,neral
features of his light, its manner of production, &c. but in
many minor points connected with the distrinution ja,the
light for ordinary domestic and business purposes h
work has yet to be done. It was at first supposed
100,000 dollars would be a sufficient experimental laud,
the larger amount was finally determined upon. P

The American Gas Light Association ot engineers and
officers of gas companies held their annual meeting in New
York on the 17th and 18th inst. The meetings were chiefly
devoted to various subjects connected with the manufacture
of gas. Professor Morton delivered an interesting lecture
on electric light. In Epeaking of the feasibility of attempt-
lug to divide the light, Professor Morton said that in just
such proportion as the division is made in the same ratio
would the light become weakened. As a whole or single
illuminator the electric light was a success, and might with
further experiments become adaptable to all ordinary wants;
but in ths present state of its use the single gasburners
scattered over houses and fed from one source were for all
practical purposes more effective. This encouraging speech
was received by the gasmen with shouts of applause

On the subdivision of the Electric Light the Globe
publishea the following letter :

On. my return to-day from the Continert I read in
your issue of the 23rd inst. that Mr. Edison has filed patents
for the "subdivision of electric light. I would remark that
the subdivision of electric light is no novelty in Europe. At
the Paris Exhibition M. Gramme show, by way of illustra-
tion, that from a small machine about 24 lights can be sup-
plied to yarious parts of a building. At the gOtel du

Louvre, in Paris, and the various shops beneath it, several
hundred electric lights are supplied from one source. I
myself have put up a small electric machine which supplies
16 li4bts to various parts of a building. Mr. Edison's patent
must, therefore, bring out something more and better than
simple subdivision of electric light, otherwise it would not
be tenable for a single day.—l am, Sir, your obedient ser-
vant, F. W. DANE, C E., 18, Somerset-place, Swansea,
October 25

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT AT THE ROYAL ARSENAL,
WOOLWICH.

_
The Government authorities are trying the adaptability of
the electric light for the illumination of large workshops by
some expsriment at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. A car-
penters' shop has recently been constructed in the Royal
Laboratory Department, and pending the provision of
gas fittings, a single electric lamp has been hung
from the roof of the building, and by its light
men have been enraged making shot boxes for a week
past. It is found that the- lamp furnishes a good
light to work by for fifty feet in every direction, and that for
workshops, when the roof is high and the space unobstructed,
the electric light is suitable and pleasant. The cost of one
lamp has been SI. per hour, and it answers the same pur-
pose m forty or fifty gas jets, but the steam power for gene-
rating the electricity is bupolied without charge from the
shafting in the main factory adjacent, and nothing is
calculated for wear and tear of apparatus. The light,
though always brilliant, is somewhat intermittent,
consequent upon the ever varying pressure upon the
machinery, which drives more than 500 lathes ; and
the small limit between the minimum and maximum
numb2r of revolutions required for the electric light
Is thought to render the employment of standug
machinery in most cases unsuitable. The apparatus has
also been tried in the Shell Foundry ot the Royal Arsenal,
and the light was popular with the workmen, but, probably,
from inexperience, the result was not quite successful. It is
propmed to place a light in the outer yard of the Royal
Laboratory, in frant of the Model Room, and it is also con-
templated to light the main factory in the same manner,
but the network of machinery and bands, and the low pitch
of the roof are unfavourable to the experiment.