The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1880-12-19
LOCAL MATTERS.
The Electric Light.

AN EXPERIMENT TO BE MADE WITH THE ELEC.
TRIO LIGHT BERE--wHAT HAS BEEN AND
WHAT MAY BE ACCOMPLISHED WITH 1T, &C.
An agreeable surprise TO those interested
Ia the success OF the electric light will be
the statement that trial OF the electric light
Is shortly 10 be made In some one or more
OF our public places. High hopes OF this
thing have been felt for long time. but
hardly one has teen realized, and much Is
due for unfDltilled promises. These have
been so numerous and made with so much
persistence and show Of good faith that, all
having come to nothing or almost nothing,
there is good reason for surprise. But the
thing will not down, it seems, and herein
there is evidence OF its usefulness and des-
tiny, for IL is following the course OF all i'm
provemenis.
In looking over the history OF electric
lighting. from the day when Sir Humphrey
Dayy astonisbed the world with his brilliant
experiments in electric and other sciences
down to the present hour, one is forced TO
conclude that nearly every inventor from
Edison down or up, as he may be ranged
has been endeayoring TO galvanize some old
corpse. The paper carbon horseshoe, it has
been shown, was buried IN England fifteen
years ago, and a similar body fell dead
not unusual-iD fact. ii is in nearly all
| improvements the usual way. Minerva
sprung fully armed from the brain Of
Jove, but little or nothing comes from
mans brain in that fashion. Gradual de-
yeIopment is the order In all sublunary
things. Man learns from aud builds upon
the foundations Of the past. "No man."
says Tyndal, "however endowed, can rise
spontaneously into intellectual spendcr
without the parentage OF anlecedent
thought" "It is true," says Professor
| Foster, "that had there been no Euclid
there would have been no Kepler, no Kep-
Ter no Newton, and no Newton modern
science would not occupy its present high
position" The course Of the electricians
| is therefore TO be but little wondered at.
The beaten track is so allcring and becomes
shortly so familiar and SO natural that meE
60 it blind. Genius alone strikes out new
way or takes departure from where others
left off. But II is brains not bones that
carry him along. Whether we have in
America a genius for this work re-
mains 20 be seen; whether he Is
already known remains also to be seen.
| The true genius is generally an ordinary
looking person, too timid to speak OF bim-
self or bis work; sensitive to the last de-
gree, he would never get Into INC pdpOi .,
would live unknown and die unnoticed.
Genus is never child OF fortune. FIRE.
uuentIy he is an object OF derision and con-
tempt, and often Of persecution.
In all that has been made public, and this
doubtless includes all that has been done,
there is but little evidence OF any real
genius engaged or developed lately in elec'
tric lighting. There has been immense
labor and large suns Of money spent on
il, and although a decided advance has been
made by Edison, Maxim. Brush, and Others
in this country, and Slemens, Lonten, and
others abroad with promising results,
the electric light Is still future posi-.
bility. 1t will come doubtless in good
ltime. When 1t does come no cry can ap'
ply it to greater advantage than Richmond
with its immense water-power now run
ming to waste.
1t is gratifying. then, TO know that th'
electric light is to be tried in our city
Something should be done TO develop IT.
and this can only be done by trial ana eX
pertinent.