The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1880-01-09
What the s.Wizard,' says Of His Inven-
Pler Thsn cas-
IN. Y. Heraid.l7

SUI 4OS&ukx O&1CA Al u Cuu1ES RuV Ais 1Scl
up on a bench, lit a cigar and chatted.
in his presence leaves the circle of me-
chanics, came back to the great ques-
ton of gas vs.. electricity for lighting.
= elf peoplewould only sit down and
think, J" said Edis0n, ;ssthey would not
say so much that's absurd. They talk
of the loss in subdivision of electricity,
as If that settled everything. The trou-
BILE with electric lighting Is that it start |
ed at the wrong end. If gas had start
Ell at burners that consumed $50 feet
per hour you would have heard the
same hubbub about loss by subdivision.
The electric light started out with great
lights that dazzle the eye, and of which
the photometer tells you the great In
tensity, but the same light power
divided into. ten lights properly dis
tributed would give you o double
illumination. You know that light
decreases with the square of the dis
lance. With gas it is the same as the
electric light-the loss of available
light by concentration against an excess
of light in a certain small area. Thirty
gas jets in one burner will not give
half as much light as 80 separate gas
jets properly distributed over the same
space. Then as to cost-and that Is the
great thing to bear in mind-the sim
gle thirty-jet gas burner can be fed at
one and one-half feet of gas per burner;
the thirty jets in thirty separate burners
will require five feet each. Here you
see the loss is the ,ldifixence between
forty-five feet and $50 feet-1O5 feet per
hour. But nobody talks of that now,
because gas begun at the right end
the little one. In electricity we be-
gan with great lights, and now the
talk in all about the loss in small ones,
sSee,' they say, edison only gets one
hundred candle power for every horse
power, while we, the voltaic arc men,
get i 600 candles Per horse power.
Very we'll, but we have conpensating
gains. Who wants 900 candles in his
house: 1t Is no more the popular want
than 800 candle gas jets. Now, as to
the voltaic arc. 1t is generally admit.
ted with that light that the cost of the
carbon candles is three times the cost
of the horse power. They first of all
lose half by their concentrated light
that takes 500 candles off. They have
to pay the price of four horse power for
their remaining 500 candles, which
brings their: candle power advantage
down to a fraction"
ssOh, it's all jealousy with them,"
said some ono in a corner.
"It's want of thought" said Edison,
quietly. ,f
"Did you read Professor Mallet's
letter to the Herald" asked, Gin
which he spoke of platinic chloride for
toughening the filament?''
eyes," said Edison; tsit won't do.
The first effect is to drive Off the chic
rine and leave pure platinum, which
increases the conductivity: that is, it
gives lower resistance. In q short
time the flament gives way altogether,
forming a new compound, the carburet
OF plathum.nt Es sSss
A"Some people are afraid of your sys-
tenn giving out because of its COM
plexity?"
81 give you my word that electricity
is hundred times simpler than gas.
just read good work on gas and see
for yourself. Electricity is cheap, SIM
pic and enduring. 1t cannot be said
that one city will have purer, clearer
or smoker or worse colored electricity
than another. It is constant, unvary-
ing as the supply is conditional. There
is no business so subject to criticism as
gas making. The complaints about
gas are innumerable. DO you know, by
the way, that some stokers can get
thousands more cubic feet out of a ton
of coal than others?"
"Because OF their greater skill"''
"Exactly; it is brains"
There was pause for moment,
when Edison said suddenly:
"Put brains in the machinery, and
you have solved the question:"
There was another pause, and some
one said, soto voce, and of course I'M
heard by Edison: "The more you
think of that the stronger it sounds"
ssThey say" remarked, zone fatal
defect Is that you do not store your
electricity, as the gas men do gas-that
you have no reservoir"
"They don't think about 1t" replied
Edison. "What is a reservoir but re-
serve force? What better reserve
force can you have than modern
steam engine? shall always have
a reserve Of engines, of generators, and
thus a reserve of electricity. Let them
not trouble themselves about that.
Forty-five citie- depend at this day
upon modern steam engines, with their
cx,lin6ara for their water