The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-01-08 00:00:00

THE NEW POSTAL MONEY ORDER.

The Money Order Act of 1880 (43 and 44 Vic. cap.
33) came into force on the Ist of January. The new
postal orders do not supersede the old money-order
system,--they are simply intended to be a useful
auxiliary to that system, and will no doubt prove so
to be. The new postal orders are simply a kind of
printed cheques, and they are issued for the following
amounts : is., poundage (or commission to post office
for trouble of issue), id. ; is. 6d. id.; 2s. 6d., id. ;
55., id.; 7s. 6d. id.; 10s., 2d. ; 12s. 6d., 2d. ; 155,,
2d.; 17s. 6d., 2d.; 205., 2d. Any one wishing to seria
away a pound by one of these cheques has simply to
proffer to the officials of any money order office one
pound and twopence, and then, when the few simple
but necessary particulars are filled in, he can send it
straight away to his friend, who, upon signingit,can get
the money at the money-order office at which it is made
payable without any question. The advantage here
is that there is no requisition form to fill up when the
order is applied for; the payment of the order does
not depend upon the payee's ability to remember the
name of the sender, or of the Christian and surnames
of the remitter and payee being exactly right, or of
the delay or miscarriage of the advice note,- and other
things, often experienced, though not easily remem-
bered. Hence the new system of postal orders is one
admirably adapted for the use of seamen who wish to
remit money to their wives or friends. These postal
orders may be crossed. They may be crossed gene-
rally, and thus be paid through any banker • or they
may be crossed specially, and thus be paid only to the
banker whose name is inscribed upon the face of the
postal order.
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT.

The detailed accounts received from New York of
the experiments on a large scale with the Brush and
Edison electric light confirm the impression produced
by the telegrams that the practical difficulties in the
ws.y of utilizing electricity for street lighting are on
thle eve of being overcome. Broadway for three-quar-
tei.s of a mile was successfully illuminated by the
Brush system, and 290 of Edison 's new lamps were sim-
ultaneously ligkted at Menlo Park. The Brush light
gave a white, steady glare, which neither increased
nop diminished in size, but burned with equal intensity
from half-past five in the evening till a quarter to seven
next morning. Mr. Edison has substituted bamboo
carbons for the paper he formerly used, and he
guarantees that the horseshoe carbon will last six
months. One defect of the electric light is that it
cannot be lowered—it is always either full on or
entirely off ; and to obviate this disadvantage Mr.
Edison supplies lamps of eight, six, and four candle
power for halls, sick-rooms, &c. He estimates that he
can supply as much light for a dollar and a half as that
for which the gas companies now charge two dollars
and a quarter. The Edison Light Company in New
York expect to do a greater business in letting electric
power for sewing-machines, elevators, and other pur-
poses than for lighting, although they are going to lay
down twelve engines of 190-horse power which will
enable them to keep 8,400 lamps of 16-candle power
constantly going.