Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1881-06-08

General Term of the Court of Common
Pleas in New York city. The case wal
against George Jones, of the New Yorl
Times for libel, and had been decided against
him in lower court. This court reversed
the judgment. It appeared that the ibellous
article was printed in newspaper published
by joint stock association. The defendant
is its secretary and treasurer, and also owns
q majority of the shares of stock, but had nc
knowledge of, or personal affinity with, the
publication complained of. He testified to
occupying controlling position by virtue OF
the number of shares owned by him, and per.
haps controlling influence as to the con.
duct and general management OF
the paper, if he chose to exercise
it in that way, which he had
never done. The opinion of the court is in
substance as follows s'The proprietor of a
newspaper is liable for defamatory matter
published without his knowledge, because of
the delegation by him to others of power to
reason of their direct connection with and
control over the contents of the paper. The
defendant does not appear to have held any
position whereby personal liability attached
under those principles. Being the secretary
and treasurer of the association necessarily
gave him no authority and imposed upon him
no duty to supervise the printed matter, or
charged him with any action relative thereto.
Neither does the law impose q liability for
the ibellous imprint solely from owning
stock, even if majority of the shares. The
company is the proprietor and publisher, and
may sue and be sued in the manner provided
by statute"
Until those who are working with the cleo
trio hight can reduce its cost considerably the
holders of gas stock need not lose much sleep
on its account Mr.. Leo Daft, the electri-
clan of the New York Electric Light associa-
ton, made the following statements in re-
cent address:
81 will relate to you the result of observa-
tlons made during recent visit to the Office
of an eminent electrician. The light was
that known as an incandescent-a filement of
carbon raised to a light emitting heat in
vacuo The exclusion of the air is necessary
to prevent the otherwise rapid destruction of
the carbon by combination with oxygen At
the time of my visit there were Sc lamps in
lamp was of 16 candle power-I accept their
statement as correct this will give us an ag-
gregate of 992 candles The generator was
vitalized by an engine rated by the attend
ants in charge at six-horse power. 1 found
that it was SKI cylinder, working with very
little expansion 430 revolutions per minute,
with ninety pounds of live steam, in
boiler not Is feet from the engine. I have
every reason to believe that the steam was
delivered at the cylinder with an almost in
appreciable loss on ninety pounds. Under
those conditions 1 think it is perfectly fair to
assume (you have the data, so that you can
calculate it sfterward) that 10000 foot
pounds were consumed in producing those
sixty lights. aggregating 992 candles. In ths
kind of engine they had, $50, 900 foot pounds
require consumption of about one hun
dred pounds of coal per hour. 1t was an
ordinary high-speed engine. That $50, 900
foot pounds, [ assume. required a hundred
pounds of coal. That is the only weak point
in my data; 1 do not know that to be true;
but [ never saw an engine of that form yet
capable of delivering one horse power with
less consumption than four to five pounds of
coal per horse power per hour. I want to be |
as fair as I can in the matter. 1 wish to
compare this as they have taken particular
pains to compare it, with gas, at the present |
cost of gas.
''The hundred pounds of coal will pro-
1uce 400 feet of gas 400 feet of gas will |
evolve the effect of 1,5G0 candles. So you |
see the position we are in. In consuming |
that coal directly by destructive distillation, |
you can produce 500 candles light; by con-
verting it into power, and then again into |
light by incandescence, you produce 992 |
this in other words we may say |
that in producing the light from coal by the |
ncandescent system you lose one-third of |
he power as CO pared with gas, by actually |
the coal into gas and delivering |
It in the ordinary manner. Those are facts, |
It has been suggested to me that am too |
liberal in my estimate of coal consumed |
that those engines use more than four or five |
pounds per horse power, but prefer to give |
them the benefit of the doubt" |