The Red Cloud chief., 1881-11-10
New Use for Electricity.

A New Use for Electricity.
The wonders Of electricity win
never cease. The immense current OF
force which pervades the universe
seems TO choose IL IS the
agency for its manifestations Earsh,
air and water are filed with IL. IL u
inexhaustible and indestrJctIble- Its
power is ~inconceivAble, and Vet IL n
be stored in q thimbie and held there to
send messages from New York 70 Eu-
rope. IL can drive colossal hammers
or propel cars, Ut IL a be made 10
perform the most delicate operations.
IL sends out messages round the world.
lets Us talk TO each other miles apart,
rings our iire-belis. lights our streets
and houses, runs our machinery. cures
our sick. perform, surgical operations,
takes photographs, runs sewing-ma-
chimes, plates our dinner services, al
lows itself TO be condensed and stored
away in boxes. regulates the blood. ger
inmates seeds. is the most favorite form
in which Nature chooses TO display her
energy. and is even pronounced capa-
BILE of Transporting the tremendous
horsepower of Niagara To undertake
mechanical WORK in Montreal, New
YORK, Philadelphia, and Boston at once
and all this though we are standing
only on the threshold of its science. and
as yet know comparatively little of
its possibilities.
Almost every day seems TO add TO
these possibilities. The latest of them
is Mr.. Siemens' curious experiments
with the electric light in its influence
upon vegetation. Hitherto II has been
known hat vegetation needs | ght, and
il has been also supposed that vegeta-
ton must repose in the darkness. or, TO
speak more Familiarity, tina; plants must
sleep at night, as they do no grow in
the darkness. Mr.. Sicmens boldly con-
ccived that they ought to grow in the
night as well as in the day. and that
they would do so if he could provide
them with an artificial sunlight. At
first his plants withered and sickened
in the electric light, but by diiIuSing it
through a clear glass shade he repelled
the refrangible rays i'm the electric arc
which destroy vegetable cells. and shed
upon them only those which quicken
their life. The result was marvellous.
He compelled his flowers and fruits to
grow night and dag. giving them no
rest except Sunday nights, and he says
that the ''grapes have a stronger flavor
than others, the melons are more aro-
matte, the Strawberries are richer col
ored. and the bananas have less than
usual the taste of unscented soap" To
generate the electricity he has to have
an engine. but he manages TO make it
profitable by substituting the waite
steam condensed for his former green
house stoves. What he does upon a
small scale he thinks a be done b.
whole ale, which leaves the London
Times 10 draw the following glowing
picture of the possibilities of this inter-
esting discovery:
There is no reason why the Man.
chester mill-Owner. after displaying his
calico machinery, should not usher his
guest into wineries aud pineries on the
other side of the wall. There the light
which moves the shut es will have
been up all night mellowing fragrant
fruit. The iron and steel kings of the
North and the West viii be able in the
morning to reveal to the b~ewildered
visitor Titanic hammers tractable to the
thrill of a wirefu! of electricity. After
dinner they may escort him a mile off
to see one corntield growing yellow
under the rad ance Of the same light
which subiugated the metal mass, and
another crop already falling beneath an
electric sickle. The neighborhoOd of a
factory or a forge. now the most insu-
perable of objections, will then be a
distinct attraction. Advertisements
NAV be expected to dwell rhetorically
on the advantages of garden land in
ing town with abundance of engine
power. Ii London do not spin cotton
or forge iron. it is an Unsuitable con-
sumner Of mechanical force in other
shapes. The more electricity it accu.
mulates for its ordinary daylight re-
quirements the better for its vegetable
produce. By the time the metropolis
has rebelled finally against its gas com
panies and bathes in a shower of cleo
trio moonbeams. fresh exemplifcations
of the system may cover the roofs of
Lombard street with exquisite orch
ards. and raise bright gardens in the
then superiuous cOal-cellars."
There is something of the humorous
in the manner that Mr. Siemens has
taken hold of his flowers and vege-
tables and compelled them to disobey
the great law of Nature by working
night and day. giving them no rest. and
hurrying up their vitality at railroad
speed. 1t may be a pleasant thought
for the farmer that his corn is growing
while he is sleeping. but it seems a lit
tie hard that the corn should be bereft
of its rest and sleep. Itneeds its sleep.
and it does not seem consistent to force
Nature and upset her practices, nor do
we believe that the corn, or the grape.
or the banana will be any the betterfor
doing compulsory night-work. 1t is in
keeping. however. with the tendency
of the present age to do everything on
perpetual high pressure. DIR. Siemens
may hurry up his plants, but they finish
their work all the sooner and disap-
pear just as human beings do. The old,
slow ways of Nature are the best, and
she is quick to revenge any interior
ence with her processes Vegetation
no moro than nan can overwork with
out Chicago Tribune.