Morning journal and courier., 1880-01-02
News by Telegraph FROM ALL QUARTERS. EDISON'S LIGHT. A Public illumination at MenlO Park. Rise in Electric Stock. The State House at Augusta
 Under Guard. The Inauguration at Albany. Governor COrnell's Official
 Career Begun.
 NEW JERSEY.
Rise in Electric Stock,
The Inauguration at Albany.
NEW JERSEY.

NEW JERSEY.
 EdisOn's Great W0rk--AnOther Exhi,
 bitiOn or His Electric Light--Inter.
 esting Experiments--EIcctr Stoch
 Going Up.
 MENLo PARK, Jan. 1.-Edison's laboratory public for the inspection of his electric light.
 Hundreds of persons availed themselves oi
 the privilege. The laboratory was brilliantly 1 illuminated with twenty-five electric lamps,
 the office and counting room with eight, and | twenty others were distributed in the street l leading to the depot and in some of the ad- joining houses. The entire system was ex- plained in detail by Edison and his assistants
 and the light was subjected to variety of
 tests. Among others the inventor placed one of the electric lamps in large glass jar filled
 little horseshoe flament, when thus sub
 merged, burned with the same bright, steady illumination as it did in the air, the water not
 having the slightest effect upon it. The lamp
 was kept thus under water for four hours.
 Another test was turning the electric current
 of and on one of the lamps with great rapid
 ity as many times as it was calculated as the light would be turned on and of in actual
 household illumination in a period of thirty
 years and no perceptible variation either in
 the brilliancy, steadiness or durability of the
 lamp occurred. The method of regulating
 the supply of electricity of the central station
 was explained in detail, as was also the eIec- tric motor; the latter was made to pump wa ter and run a sewing machine with only as
 much electricity as was necessary to give out an illumination of the briIliancy of an ordina. ry gas jet.
 To illustrate, MT. Edison simply attached the wires of the motor to an electric lamp, disconnecting the latter. The rapid changes from light to power and from power back again to light attracted much attention and elicited not 8 little admiration. The method of producing the current, the mode of meas urement of the electricity consumed, the manner of connecting the wires and the oth- CT incidental details were practically ilustra- ted. The simple method of preparing the horseshoe flament attracted much attention. At one of the tables in the laboratory an as. sistant sat with small punch in his hand punching from pieces of cardboard the little horseshoes. Another assistant then placed several at @ time in an iron mould five inches square, and placed the latter in the furnace. At the expiration of little more than an hour the mould was taken out and the car bonized papers shown. At this stage they are quite fragile, and it is only after being subjected to the action of the electric current that they become reasonably strong. The vacuum pumps were kept working, and hun dreds witnessed the methods of obtaining the vacuum in the bulbs of the lamp. The wires leading from the generators to the various lamps were followed in all their connections. Thau or1inorv uuir nf ohouk one-eighth of an inch in diameter.
 The regulation of the current was carried on in the lower part of the laboratory, young man by the aid of a small wheel turning of the current to any degree desired. Attached to all the chandeliers, which are of the pattern frequently used, were screws, by the turning of which the light could be turned on or of as readily as gas. The center of attraction dur ing the exhibition was Edison himself, who was attired in a rough suit of working clothes. For hours he was surrounded, first by one throng and then by another, and he found it almost impossible to get away. Many had come in the expectation of seeing digniied, elegantly dressed person, and were much sur prised to find him simple young man attired in the homeliest manner, using for his expla- nations not high sounding, technical terms, but the plainest and simplest language. The skeptics were severe in their cross-questioning but to all their interrogatories as to expense, amount of horse power consumed, pro- posed method of working and all other details he gave prompt, simple and direct answers, which were readily understood and always convincing. When argued with that the gas companies could reduce the price of gas much lower than it was at present and still make 8 profit, thus successfully com peting with the electric light, he referred to the electric motor to be used in connection with his system, pointing out that even if gas and electricity cost exactly the same to pro- duce, the electric motor could make Q vast difference in favor of electricity, insomuch as the plant of the latter would be kept in use nearly all day and night-in the daytime fur nishing power, in the night time furnishing il- lumination-while the gas was serviceable for only four or five hours every night being idle throughout the day, but he insisted that with out the electric motor gas could not be pro duced nearly as cheap as electricity under any circumstances.
 Tonight the display was repeated. In addi- ton to the street lamps there were one hundred electric burners in operation in Prof. Edison's and machine shops and in private residences. The number of lights will be in- creased daily until it reaches about eight hundred. The Pennsylvania Railroad Con- pany carried people to and from the Park at reduced fares and muititudes availed them selves of the opportunity to witness the illumination. The street lamps are globular in form and are mounted upon cylinder WOOU0u pO6tS. AS Lu0 passengers bL6pp6Q from the cars they were confronted by rays from the lamps which lighted the stairway leading from the depot to the plateau of ground upon which the village stands Wednesday nights display was the finest gen. eral street illumination at the Park, although half dozen outside lamps and 8 number of houses had been previously lighted with the electric light. Since the village was first lighted up, week ago, workmen have been busy erecting additional lamp posts in the streets. Professor Edison was very much elated with the success of his experiment, but he still preserved his quiet and unassuming demeanor. The two-story laboratory was brilliant, at least twenty burners up stairs and down stairs being in operation. Among the visitors was committee from the Brooklyn Gas Light Company, who seemed especially anx- ious to see how Edison's invention work; a cloth manufacturer of Pennsylvania, who came to see what arrangement he could make for having his mill supplied with several hun dred of these burners. He said that at pres ent there is great danger in his mill from gas It was said that the original $1OO shares in the Edison Electric Light Company had changed hands for $4, 500: new electric gen had been erected several months before, is now in motion. The generators are each about four feet high and three in thick ness, and comprise huge "U" magnet with the usual apparatus for inducting electricity. It is Edison's intention to try the experiment of using chemical electricity at some future time, but he is confident that the frictional method is by far cheaper and better. During the past six or eight days thousands of people have visited Edison, Investigating the new light, among whom were several well known scientific men, who pronounced the dis covery that slips of carbon pa per placed in g globe from which the air has been exhausted 8. complete solu- ton of the problem of retaining the electric sparks long enough to give a steady light. Menlo Park will be again illuminated to-mor- row evening.