The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-07-14
TIE LIGHT OF THE FUTURE.


TIE LIGHT OF THE FUTURE.
AN ELECTRIC CANDLE THAT WILL DANISH
GAS METERS.
Public Buildings, Rooms and Squares in Psri: 50
Brilliantly Lighted with tho NOW Invention
that Even Sunshine iS Rivaued.
Boston Transcript.
Paris June 3-Tbat q good and steady
light can be obtained from an electric cur
rent has long been known. Az lecture
experiment it is familiar to the studious
public, and in come engineering work 1t
has been practically applied as means OF
illuminating large places where number
of men must be employed in the night.
This has been the sum of Its value for
long time. The cost of the batteries and
use, and the difficulty of controlling the
light, placed it beyond the reach of any
save richly endowed colleges, and the gem
ernl public regarded it merely as curios-
ity, wonderful and shining light that
scieptific men obtained at times by means
more mysterious than the strange, white
light itself. or course, the public asked If
IL could be made available in daily life;
but the answer was that it was too costly
to be of any practical value for streets,
shops or shipe.
The gradual invention of number of
dynamo 6feCtfiC thhCufHoS u
rent of electricity could he obtained from
power lin other words the discovery OF u
means OF farming power into electricity
put the light in a new position. 1t was
found that the dynamo electric machine
gave comparatively cheap supply OF
electricity and dispensed with the trouble
and inconvenience of batteries. Now all
that was needed was power, and that the
steam engine or any other form OF motor
could supply.
II this had been all, the electric light
would have been at once placed on COM
mercial basis. 1t was easy to obtain q
current, but it might flow forever through
o wire, and to all appearance the wire
would be cold and dull. There must be
some means of arresting the stream, some
means of damming it up, so that when it
finally surmounted the obstruction, 1t
would glow at q white heat by the effort
TO overcome the obstacle. 1t was found
that sticks or pencils of gas carbon were
excellent conductors of electricity, and
that, If q pencil was broken, and then
pulled few centimetres apart, the elec-
tricity would leap through the air over
shis gap. The effort required to pass this
obstruction developed heat and light, pre-
ciseiy as the dam develops power in the
atream, and makes 1t available In the
waterfall.
The engine having been harnessed to
the dynamo electric machine, the current
spYapg up, and following the pencils leap
ed over the gap in magnificent arch IN q
binding, overpowering glare that rivalled
the face of the suu. The electric light was
now on @ commercial basis. 1t could be
used for lighting houses and streets
Nothing is at hIst wholly successful and
reasonably cheap at the same time.
The lamp In which the silent current
burned with such brilliancy was not reli
able. The two pencils were consumed, al
shey burned away they fell apart, the gar
was too wide; the current could moi
pass, and remained dormant behind thu
insurmountAble dam, push the. pencilI
together and it flashed up again. lnge
Nous clock work was then devised where
by tho two carbons could be adjusted t.
each other as they burned away. Oo'
pencil, it was found, burned twice as faB
AZ the other, and this caused still furthe
trouble the force of the current some
times varied, and added to the complicated
Elockwork must be q regulating apparatu
controlled, by means OF an electro magnet
by the current itself. In time the dynamo
electric machine es became still more i'm
proved, but this complicated aud costl!
lamp was still a bar to the popular use q
the light. An electric lighting plant cos
too much, and that seemed to be the en'
Of the whole matter.
Then appeared the electric candle, tha
ut once placed electric lighting on "a ne1
basis. The clockwork and reeulatin
apparatus, were replaced by two sticks o
gas carbon bedded in kaolin, like candl
with two wicks. The current passed a
one pencil to the top, leaped across, in it
luminous arch to the other, and theme
downward on it's circuit. The kaoli
insulated the two pencils everywher
except at the top, and as they burne
away the kaolin was also consumed, an
thus the lamp was literally an electri
candle.
Tho stranger ip Paris naturally desire
to see the Opera House, and If he visit
the grand square in front of the buildin
ne must observe in the roadway groups @
gas lamps. AT the top of each group is on
lamp larger than the others, and apparently
made of porcelain or the opaque whit
glass used for lamp shades. More careful
inspection shows a number of large wire
twisted neatly around the lamp post, al
enclosing this strange white lantern. Be
fore the Opera House are ak of thes
lamps, and from one of the balconies ex