Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1881-06-15
The Future OF Electricity.

At meeting of the society of arts, in
London. Professor John Perry read A
paper which was illustrated by many ex-
periments, On the Future Developments
of Electrical Appliances" He said elec-
trical energy can be transmitted to dis
tance. and even to many thousands of
miles, but can it be trans formed at the
distant place into mechanical or any other
required form of energy nearly equal in
amount to what was suppliedp Unfortu.
nately, hitherto the practical answer made
by existing machines is NO" But.
fortunately, Joule's experiments and other
facts tell us that in electrical machines of
the future and in their connecting wires
there will be little heating, and therefore
little loss. We shall, at no distant date.
have great central stations, possibly
situated at the bottom of coal-pits, where
enormous steam engines will drive enor-
nous electric machines. We shall have
wires laid along every street. Tapped into
every house, as gas pipes are at present;
we shall have the quantity of electricity
used in each hOnse registered. as gas is at
present; and ii will be passed through
little electric machines to drive machinery,
to produce ventilation, to replace stoves
and fires, 10 work apple -parers and
mangles, and BARRIERS brushes, among
other things, as we'll as to give everybody
an electric light. 1t had been supposed
that to transmit the power of Niagara
Falls to New York copper cable OF enor-
nous thickness would be needed Profes
sor AyrtOn showed that the whole power
might be transmitted by a fine copper
wire, if it could only be sufficiently we'll
insulated. He also showed that the one
thing preventing our receiving the whole
OF our power was the mechanical friction
which occurs in the machines. He show.
ed. in fact, how to get rid of electrical fric.
ton. Professor Ayrton and himself had
come to the conclusion that very large
continuous current machines, with sepa-
rate exciters, or prehaps even magneto-
electric machines, driven very fast by
steam engines, will have an important
place in the future transmission of energy
by electrical methods. With such ma.
chimes it would be possible to heat, light,
and ventilate all the houses in New York.
and to give to large and small workshops
the power required to drive their ma
chinery by means Of an ordinary telegraph
wire (but with some exceptionally good
hAobhOu Va bueTUV
from as great distance as the Falls Of
Niagara. The experiments of DR.. Siemens
showed that there could be no doubt that
the introduction of electric railways every-
where was merely question of capital
and the sacrifice of much existing plant.
This kind of proof was needed by capital
lists. But the electrician saw much further
he saw better insulation for the conductor,
and application of the above principles to
hundreds Of miles of rails instead of a
thousand yards; he saw, in fact, that the
larger the experiment the greater must be
its success. He looked to the absence
of vtiated atmosphere in our underground
railways. He saw that the weight of rails
(for there would be no heavy locomotive
in the future, each carriage would have
its own driving and brakeing machinery
and the cost of bridges and wear and tear
of permanent way might become less than
one quarter of what they are at present;
he saw, in fact, all the advants ges that
would arise. when, instead OF making
heavy steam engine travel backward and
forwards with carriages, the carriages
alone travel, and the steam engine is not
near the railway at all. The lecturer
concluded by exhibiting models to .illus.
trate his belief that it will become possible
by electricity to enable man in London
to see an occurrence going on in distant
town.