The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1881-06-02
Future OF Electric Invention.

microphones and electric pens are tn,
mere beginnings of the science, ant
VIII, by the time we are too old to ust
them, be regarded with much the same
respectful interest that Stephenson.
-" Rocket is viewed by modern en-
gineer, or Coster's ''Spiegel onzer Bed
houdenis" by member of the Typo
graphical Union. By-and-by we shall
not only correspond, talk, send our por
traits and manifold by electricity,
but have our houses lighted and heated,
our machinery driven by the same ON.
nipotent agent. If needs be every
weavers shuttle, every village black
smiths bellows, every milliner's sew
ing machine and every advanced baby's
cradle will be driven, blown or rocked
by that 'Vrllf' power, of whose future
development by the coming race Mr..
Perry has almost as sanguine hope as
had Lord Lytton after less scientific
fashion. Coal gas, at which Sir Walter
Scott jeered and for belief in which
DIR. Chalmers was considered by his
shrewd countrymen to be not altogether
soond," is, we are told, doomed as a
lighting agent. In a few years it will
subserve the humble office of a eener-
ator OF electricity by setting steam
engines in motion, or by being con-
sumed in a voltaic cell. But as power
can be transmitted by electricity,
there is, as Sir William Thompson once
suggested, nothing to prevent us from
importing our force from America, Just
as at present we import beef, wheat,
canned" peaches and wooden nut
megs. In the falls of Niagara there is
energy enough to generate sufficient
electricity to light and heat all London,
drive all the machinery in Birmingham
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 Sayka, or
the tumbling water of the Troll
hata. In the future we are to
drink, build our houses, pillow our fields
and manure them, sail our yachts, pro-
pei 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 life in
one long afternoon, until he dies of an
overdose OF electricity, and is buried in
an eiectric-dug grave, or cremated by
a touch of his bereaved family's private
" Perry-Ayrton'' machine.
That this and great deal more will
come to pass is evident to all who can
read within the lines of Prof. Perry's
discourse. Sydney Smith, who, like
oouthey, had limited appreciation of
science, considered that :" from cleo
tricity and nj. P.'s we expected too
much" In the Siemens electric rail
way the propelling force is alone sent
with the cars, but not the machine for |
generating that force. A generator of |
electricity is driven by large sta
tionary engine somewhere in the vi
entity OF the railway. A motor on a
carriage receives electric energy bv the
conducting rails. and converts this into
mechanical work to drive the carriaoe.
The introduction of electric RAILWAYS is
merely question of capital and the
sacrifice of much existing plant. But
as soon as this is resolved on there will
be economy effected, for, as no heavy
locomotives will be required, there will
be saving in the weight of steel 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 braking machinery the
energy at present wasted in stop
ping train 'will be simply
given back to the generator" The
problem OF lighting and heating houses
by electricity is practically solved.
When people generally avail themselves
OF that solution, smoke and SCOT and
DIRT will desert our murky atmosphere,
White the same engine that warns the
merchants office will light his ware
house, enable him to correspond with
his agent by word or letter, order din
ner, synchronise his clocks, receive the
portrait of a suspicious visitor to his
country house, call the police and blow
the fog-h which is to warn off the
rocks the crew of his homeward- bound ;
snip. Nor need its use stop there. In ,
lime the advantages of electricity will
penetrate even the darkness of the vest
les The citizen who tumbles into /
us electrically warmed bed with the
NOW foot deep on the ground, will
wake up in the morning to toast his toes /
It the electric stove and see dry streets !
md the beadle trundling home the par ,
sh Gramme. Already Mr.. Edward '
'right in ten minutes de-electrifes in !
vacuum his hirsute bobbins of warn. ,
instead OF, as formerly, allowing nature !
o do SO in half year-during which +
us capital must lie fallow in the factory.
Dir. Shelford Bidwell produces pictures
4 distant stationary objects in shaded
mes on paper by electro-chemical de-
imposition; and Mr.. Perry, by taking
hint from Mr.. Punch, is by no means
ertaih that very soon an aged couple
{ home may not be able to see on their
fawing-room wall an image of their Ii
randchildren playing Badminton in
ndia and of learning from the tele- S
hone how they are enjoying the game.
All this, of course, must seem to be in
he far distance. Still, we must re-
lember that science is moving rapidly, q
lat every year sees fresh students and
lsy brains intent on improving the e
andiwork OF their predecessors. 1t
ems like yesterday since Ger