The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1881-04-22
FUrUKE OF ELECTRIC INVENTION.
Imagination Picturing Forth the MAR
vellous Things Electricity IL 10 Do
for Is In Ages to Come

Imagination Picturing Forth the MAR
vellous Things Electricity IL 10 DO
for Is In Ages to Come.
London STANDARD.
Professor Perry, at the Society of Arts last
night, painted most slluring picture of the
future of electricity. Telegrsphs, telephones,
photophones, monographs, microphones
and electric pens are the mere beginning of
the science, and will, by the time we are too
old to use them, be regarded with much the
same respectful interest that Stephenson's
''rocket" is viewed by modern engineer, or
Coster's "spieselonzer bedhoudeAis" by q
member of the typographical union. By
and-by, We shall not only correspond, talk,
send our portraits, and manifold" by cleo
tricity, but have cur houses lighted and
heated, our railway trains and
train cars propelled, and our machinery
driven by the same omnipotent
agent If needs be. every wesver's shuttle,
every village blscksmith's bellows, every
milliner's sewing machine, and every ad-
vaneed baby's cradle will be driven, blown,
or rocked by that "Vrill" power, of whose
future development by the coming race Mr..
Perry has slnost as sSnguine hope as had
Lord Lytton after scientific fashion. Coal
gas, at which Sir Walter Scott ieered, and
for belief in which DIR. Chalmers was con.
sidered by his shrewd countrymen to be not
altogether "soond," is we are told, doomed
1 40 N HUh Tn 60
subserve the humble office Of generator
OF electricity by setting steam enginskjn mo-
ton, or being consumed in a voltsic cell.
But as power can DO transmitted by electricity
there lie, rs Sir William Thompson once
suggested, nothing TO prevent US from i'm.
porting our force from America, Just as at
present we import beef, wheat, scanned"
peaches ard wooden nutmegs. In the fall of
Niaeara there is energy enough to generate
aoiiicient electricity TO light and heat all
London, drive all the machinery in Biz.
mingham or Manchester, and send score of
Flying Scotchmen with easy swiftness from
one end of the kingdom to the other.
Transmitted energy" will be consigned to
US from the Amazon and the Amoor from
the smoke-enveloped "foss" of the Hjommel
Ssyka, the tumbling water of the Trollbata.
In the future we are to drink, build
our houses, pillow our helds and
manure them, sail our yachts, propel
our steamers and trains, print
our books and perhaps write them
by The aid of electricity. Men will then
| have subdued the forces Of nature, and the
lord of creation will relapse into manual
idleness, or dream away lie in, one long sf-
ternoon, until he dies of an overdose of cleo.
tricty, and is buried in an electric.dug grave,
OF crema!ed bya touch of his bereaved fam
iy's private "Perry-Ayrlon" machine.
That this and great deal more will come
to pass is evident to all who can read within
the Lies of Professor Perry's discourse.
Sydney Smith, who, like Southey, had a
limited appreciation of science, considered
that from electricity and M. P.'s we eX-
pected too much" In the Siemens electric
railway the propelling force is alone sent
with the cars, but not the machins for gen.
GRAZING that force. A generator of electric.
IVY Is driven bya large stationary engine
somewhere in the vicinity of the
railway. A motor on carriage 70
ceives electric energy by the conducting
rails, and converts this into mechanical work
to drive the carriage. The introduction of
electric railways is merely question of
capital and the sacrifice of much existing
plant. But. as soon rs this is resolved on
there will be economy effected, for, as no
heavy locomotives will be required, there
will DO saving In the weight of slesl rails, in
the cost of bridges, and in the wear and tear
OF permanent way. And as each carriage
will have its own driving and breaking ma.
chinery tho energy at present wasted in
stopping train "wlll be simply given back
to the generator The problem of lighting
and heating houses by electricity is practic-
ally solved. When people generally avail
themselves ofthst solution smoke and SCOT
and dirt will desert our murky atmosphere,
while the same engine that warns the
mechanics office will light his warehouse,
enable him to correspond with his agent by
word or letter, order dinner, synchroniss his
clocks, receive the portrait of suspicious Wis.
itor to his country house, call the polics and
blow the frog horn which is to warn off the
rocks the crew of his homeward- bound shin.
Nor need its use stop there. In time the
advantages Of electricity will penetrate even
the darkness of the veslries. The citizen
who tumbles into his electrically warmed
bed with the snow foot deep on the ground,
will wake up in the morning to toast his toes
ut the electric stove and see dry streets snd
the beadle trundling home the parish
Gramme. Already MIR. Edward Bright in
ten minutes deeectrtes in vacuum his
hirsute bobbins OF yarn, instead of, MS Tor.
me,ly, allowing nature to do so in half a
year turing which his capital must lie
ialll~ in the factory Mr. Sheliord Bldwell
produces pictures Of distant stationary OBJ.
jecis in shaded lines on paper by electro.
chemical decomposition; and Mr.. Perry, by
taking hint from Mr.. Punch, is by no
means certain that very soon an aged couple
at home may not be able to SEQ on their
drawng-room wall an image of their grand.
childlon playing Bsdmiaton in India and of
learning from the telephone how they are
eoj ying the game.