River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1879-12-18
now EDISON WILL CELEBRATE.
He Proposes to illuminate His christ.
mas Eye With Perfected Electric
Light.
New York sun.


II the inventors prophecies are full
filled, it is very safe to say.that OF all the
Christmas festivals this month, not one
will comman nd such universal attention
as that which is to be held in Menlo
Park, N. ]. Then is promised that long
looked for achievement OF science, the
economical subdivision of the electric
light. On Christmas eve the Wizard
of Menlo Park, Thomas A. Edison, will
illuminate all the Buildings in the mod
est little hamlet lii Which he lives and
works. 10 that end wires have been
run from house to house, and connect.
ed thence with his laboratory. The
illumination will be by means of what
might be called electric jets, but which,
more properly speaking, are small spi-
rails of platinum and iridium in state
of incandescence in vacuum. The
dynamo electric machines, whence the
current Is generated, are already set up
in the laboratory. One of these, hav-
ing power of forty horses, will gene
rate sufficient electricity for one hun
bred and sixty lights, each of 16.candle
power, which is the measurement of
electric intensity. That is to cay, the
extraordinary phenomenon may be
seen on Christmas day in Memo Park,
of electric lights toned down to the in
tensity of gas jets. In few days Mr..
Edison will begin the task Of affixing
the jets, so called. upon the gas burn
ers in the several houses. Instead of
running the wires that are to transmit
the current through the gas pipes, as
it is his intention to do shortly in this
city, for this occasion he will lay the
wires along the pipes.
II shall send invitations far and wide, !"
said Mr.. Edison, last Wednesday, sin
order that all may sec that what has
been considered visionary and impos-
sible has been accomplished. The
thing Is done. have protected it in
this country and every considerable
country in Europe. That is to say,
there are only few unimportant parts
of Europe yet remaining uncovered,
and these will be so before the advent
of the holidays. You ask me if / can
compete with carbureted hydrogen gas.
Let the gas companies reduce their
prices, and then reduce it again, for it
is well known they can still do this and
make money, and | can undersell them
and make q large profit"
The methods and steps by which Mr..
Edison claims to have accomplished
the undertaking that had its inception
in the electric shops in Ansonia, Conn.,, is
now for the first time made public.
When Mr.. Edison received from An
sonia The Wallace dynamoelectric
machine, or the telemachon, as Mr..
Wallace calls it, he at once began his
experiments. The amount of power
he recovered in the second machine
was so incomensurate with the original
power apple TO the fist machine, and
transmitted by wire, that both
were cast aside. Then Mr..
Edison experimental upon the Gramme
the Brush, and the Siemens machines.
These were better, but still the loss of
power was excessive. Mr.. Edison at
once left the beaten track upon which
scientists have been toiling for years
with unvarying results, and struck out
into fields altogether new. Instead of
exciting the field magnet by the current
from the armature. Mr.. Edison charges
the field magnet by means of sepa-
rate machine. TIE batteries of these
GENERATORS are charged by means of a
Faradic machine. 1t does not require
more than minute to charge the i'm
mense magnets. The internal resist
ance of the armature is only one-half
ohm.
Mr.. Edison's new generator differs
from the Gramme, Sien.ens,
Brush, and Wallace machines. The
field magnets are about fifty-four inches
high, and weigh one thousand pounds.
The magnet cores are of wrought iron.
They are six inches in diameter, and
thirty-six inches long. They are mount
ed upon heavy cast-iron blocks, ten and
inches high, and nine inches
wide. The cores are wound with three
layers of No. 10 cotton-cOvered wire,
the ends Of which are connected with
on the base OF the ma
chine. The two blocks upon which the
cores rest, as we'll as the bearings of the
are supported by a cross.
shaped brass casting.
The armature, revolving in d cylin-
drical space between the poles of the
field magnet, consists of wooden cyl
Under mounted on J inch shaft, and
having attached to Its ends soft iron
plates, between which are several lay
ers of No. 20 soft iron wire wound cir
Outside of the iron
disks there are vulcanized fibre disks
having their peripheries notched to re-
ceive the several coils of insulated wire
wound lengthwise on the cylinder and
connected with copper bars OF the COM
cylinder. The field magnet is
by the aid OF q separate ma
chine.
Thus, as it may be seen, Mr.. Edison
began at the foundation. At first he
hoped that the machines already in the
market would at least furnish him with
sufficient power, and he so expressed
himself at the time. His hope proved
fallacious. The loss of power was alto
gether too great for economy. In his
new machine Mr.. Edison says he re-
covers 65 per cent. IN his second ma
chine of the power applied at the first.
After completing his dynamo machine
Mr.. Edison worked upon his electrome-
ter, for without some kind of a meas
ure he could not tell how much of the
electric current was expended at any
one point. This was soon done. For
nearly eight months he has been exper-
imenting upon the little contr1vance
that is to furnish the light. First it was
made to consist of small platinum
spiral without covering. This would
not do because after the current has
been withdrawn oxidation to greater
or less degree set in. Then he made
with lime as the base, and
with this he covered the spiral. 1t was
but had defects. Finally
he bit upon the expedient Of COM
pletely covering the platinum with
small glass globe filled with oxygen gas.
The globe being alright there could OF
course be no combustion. This gave
the inventor great satisfaction, but still
he experimental, and found that the
gas was unnecessary and troublesome
in charging, and he rejected it, but re-
tanned the sealed globe. Then came
the difficulty of preventing the intensity
of the current from fusiDg the platinum.
This problem, which has puzzled cleo
tricians ever since the first experiments
in this direction was met. A solution
was found, after great labor and almost
experiments by an lngenl-
Gus device. 1t is well known that the
fusing point of platinum is greater than
any other metal. That is to say, il the
be raised about ser es OF
metals. each piece of which Is of the
same size. the platinum will go last;