The Osceola times., 1881-07-09
ELECTRICITY BOXED.
Discovery of the Highest Importance
Bearing on the Electric Light Problem.

in the Herald concerning the trasmission
of stored.up electricity in a boxed-up
battery announces discovery of possibly
high Importance in its bearing on the
electric light problem. One of the great
difficulties in the way of cheaply furnish.
ing electricity for lighting purposes is
the impossibiity of storing the current.
A "batch" of electricity can not be made
during the day and accumulated in res-
ervoirs TO be drawn off as wanted at
night, as may be done with gas, but, on
the contrary, electricity must be pro-
duced as it is needed. The consequence
of this is that when a company UNDER
takes to supply given district it must
manufacture and send through the wires
enough current to supply all the lamps
therein, even though only fraction OF
the number Of the lamps be ordinarily
used. Of course, this wasted power is an
important item in the cost of electric
illumination, fist to producer, and ulti-
mately to consumer.
Now comes NJ. rlante, and lately fol.
lowing him NJ. Camille Faure, with what
appears to lie fl asible wav of storing
up e.ec rcity. 1t should be understood
that this Is not a plan for gaining i'm
mense power, as might be inferred from
| the statements of the London Timess
correspondent quoted IN the dispatch,
because nothing is more certain than
that not one jot more power can be got
out Of any contrivance than is put into
1t, Messrs. Keely & Gamgee apparently
| to the contrary Notwithstanding, but one
| for accumulating weak energy over
/ long time and delivering the accumua-
| ton in a short time. Plante produced
/ his apparatus some eight years ago, and
| last year published results OF an extend
/ ed series of valuable researches concern.
/ it. His so called secondary element"
| consists OF two large sheets of lead, kept
/ apart by bands of gutta percha, and i'm
mersed in diluted sulphurlc acid. BY
/ means of a current IRON q Grove or
| Bunsen cell for example, he oxidzes
| the lead by successive charges and dis~
| charges until coat of oxide and reduced
| lead is formed on the surface of the
metal. Then if the battery is taken away
/ and the lead plates Joined by wire,
so-called secondary current is produced
| in the latter. This current lasts but
short time, but its total energy equals
| all that which is received from the bat
| tery by Plante's Contrivance for long
| time. Hence with two or three Bunsen
cells effects are obtainable which other.
wise would require for their production
MANY hundred such cells. These sec-
ondary currents under certain conditions
are constant while they last, and an
element has been found to yield a good
current after rest of two weeks after
charging. Their heating effects are con-
| siderable. Thus the discharge of one Of
| Plante's elements with lead plates about
| five and analf square feet in area will
| keep platinum wire one twenty-fith
| of an inch thick and eight inches long
! red-hot for from one to ten minutes,
| Besides this the current has been put TO
| several odd uses. Plante has employed
| it 10 produce what he calls the "electro-
silicic light" by putting glass tube
| over the end of a platinum wire c.nnect~
| ed with secondary battery of sixty ele-
ments and immersing the tub in a solu-
ton of nitrate of potash. The end Of
the wire becomes enveloped in globe
| of melted glass. and brilliant light is
given out until the cooling of the glass
| finally isolates it from the liquid. An
other application of the current is TO the
engraving of glass, which is covered with
a saltpetre solution and acted upon by
| a platinum wire, connected, as before,
with q sixty-element secondary battery.
| 1t is said that the work is done with
great rapidliy and delcacy, and that re-
markably fine lines are produced to any
desired depth.
For msny purposes Plantes battery
has the objection of bulkness. and this
| IS remeded by Faure's improvements.
| IN. l,t,., ,bi,ny anuSietc in pnvaripf,
| the plates with layer of spongy lead
/ formed upon them by the current while
/ immersed in acldulated water. The
action is kept up until the whole Of the
positive plate is transformed, and then
the plates are inclosed in felt. There
are other notifications OF the apparatus
which deed not here be described. Its
capacity, as stated by the London Times
| correspondent, is measureless. Electric
or any otner energy IS no more measured
by the foot lnan it is by the bushel, and
| hence 10 assert that electric energy
nearly equivalent to million feet Is
contained within less than cubic foot
of space" signifies nothing. | find II
recently published, however, that one OF
| Faure's batteries, weighing one hundred
and sxty-five pounds, will store quaint
| lty OF electric energy capable OF PERFORM
4 ing "a horsepower of work in an hour"
which, though not at all clear, prcsum--
ably means that the energy thus stored
/ is capable of doing in one hour work
equal to that required to lit weight OF
thirty-three thousand pounds one foot
high in one minute. The bearing OF
/ this invention on the economical use OF
electricity is plain. If 1t can be demon
strated that weak currents can thus be
accumulated on large scale the possi>
bility may reasonably follow that one
great advantage which gas making has
over the production of electricity for
Illuminating purposes will be neutralized.
True merit Will always be recognlz'
cd. A circus manager lately went lish-
ing in certain brook, and found out
there wasn't fish in it. And the next
day he heard poor young man say that
he had Just caught 29l trout in three
hours. And the circus owner at once
saw the worth of the lad, and hired him
at $40 per week TO write circus advertise