The Osceola times., 1881-06-25
ELECTRIC INVENTION.
umagsnsfion Pieturtog Forth what Eieetrio-
ny 70 To DO for u In Ages IN Come.
London Stan ndArd.

umsgtnsfion Pieturing Forth what Electric
ny 70 10 do for Us In Ages IN Come.
London Stan dzrd.
Prof. Perry, at the Society Of Arts last
night, painted most alluring picturs oil
the future of electricity. Telegraphs
telephones, ptotophones, monographs
mere beginning Of the science, and will
by the time we are too old TO use them,
lie regarded with much the saine respect
ful interest that stephenson's Rocket
u vie wed by modern engineer, or Cost
rs "spiegel onser Bedhoudenis' by a
member Of the Typographical Union.
By-and-by, we shall not only correspond,
talk, send our portraits and manifold
by electricity, but have our houses
lighted and heated. our railway trains
and tram cars propelled, and our ma
chinery driven by the same omnipotent
agent. II needs be every weaver's
shuttle, every village blacksmith's bel
lows, every milliners sewing. machine,
and every advanced baby's cradle will
be driven, blown, or rocked by that
"Vrill"l power, Of whose future develop-
ment by the coming race Mr.. Perry has
almost 10 sanguine hope as had Lord
Lyiton alter a less scientific fashion.
Coal gas, at which Sir Walter Scott
i-ered. and for Q belief in which DR..
Chalmers was considered bv his shrewd
G .unirymen to be not altogether sound"
j. sc are told, doomed a. lighting ag-
eui. in few years it will subserye the
humble Office Of generator OF electric
IT. by setting steam engines in motion,
or by being consumed in a voltaic cell.
But as power can be transmitted by cleo
tficity, there il, as Sir William Thomson
once suggested, nothing TO prevent us
from importing our force from America,
Just az at present we import beef. wheat,
canned" teaches, and wooden nutmegs.
In the fall Of Niagara there Is energy
enough to generate sufficient electricii Z
to light and heat all London, drive all
the machinery in Birmingham or Man
chester, and send score offyinR Scotch.
men with easy swiftness from one end OF
the kingdom to the other. Transmit
ted 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, plow our fields and
manure them, sail our yachts, propel our
steamers and trains. print our books and
perhaps write them, by the aid OF cleo
tricity. Men will then have subdued
the forces OF nature, and the "lord Of
creation will lapse into manual idleness,
or dream away life in one long afternoon,
until he dies Of an overdose OF electricity
and il burned in an electric dug grave,
or cremaied by touch Of his bereaved
family's "Perry-Ayrton" machine.
That this and great deal more will
come 10 pass IL evident to all who can
read within the lines Of Prof. Perry's
discourse. Sydney Smith. who, like
Southey, had limited appreciation tor
science. considered that from electricity
and Mr.. P.'s we expected to much" In
the Siemens electric railway the propel-
ling force is alone sent with the cars, but
not the machine for generating that
force. A generator OF electricity is driven
by large stationary engine somewhere
in the vicinity OF the railroad. A motor
on the carriage receives electric energy
by the conducting rails and converts
III g into mechanical energy to drive the
carriage. The introduction Of electric
railways is merely question OF capital,
aud the sacrifice Of much existing plant
But a. soon as this is resol wed on econo-
NV will be effected, and, as no heavy
locomotives will be required, there VIII
be saving in the weight OF steel rails,
in the cost Of bridges and the wear and
tear Of permanent ways. And as each
carriage will have its own driving and
breaking machinery, the energy at pres
cnt wasted in stopping train VIII he
simply given back to the generator"
The problem Of lighting and heating
houses by eleciricily Is practically solv-
ed. When people generally avail them
selves OF that solution, smoke and SCOT
and dirt will desert our murky atmos'
phere, while the same engine that warns
the merchants Office will light his
warehouses, enable him to correspond
with his agent by word or letter.. order
dinner, eyncnronise his clocks, receive
the portrait OF a suspicious visitor to his
country house, call the police and blow
the fog horn which is TO warn of the
rocks the crew Of his homeward bound
vessel Nor need It's use stop there. In
time the advantages Of electricity will
penetrate the darkness of vestries. The
citizen who tumbles into his electri.
cally warmed bed with the snow foot
deep on the ground will wake up in the
morning to toast bis toes at the electric
slove and see dry streets and the beadle
trundling home Se parish Gramme
Already Mr.. Edward Bright in ten min.
uics de electri6es IN vacuum his hirsute
bobbins Of yarn. instead OF, as formerly
allowing nature to do so in half a year =
turing which his capital must lie fallow
in the factory. Mr.. Shelford Bidwell pro-
du es pictures OF distant stationary OBJ
lects in shaded line on paper by electro
chemical ecoRposition; and Mr.. Perry
by taking hint from Mr.. Punch, is by
no means certain that very soon an aged
couple ut home NAV not be able to see on
their drawing-room wall an image ol
their grandchildren playing Badmlnton
in India, and OF learning from the tele'
phone how they are enjoying the game
All this. Of course, must seem to be in
the far distance. Still, we must remem
Der that science is moving rapidly, that
every year sees fresh students and busy
snins intent on improving the handi-
work OF their predecessors. 1t seems
like Yesterday since Oersted was vainly
endeavoring to explain TO the Danish
Queen Dowager, who did last week, the
irst glimmering Of the electric telegraph
Yet the telephone already threatens 10
supersede the telegraph. Men still living
can remember Sir John Barrow warning
HE friend 0eorRe Stephenson not to hurt
eood cause By talking olishly about
ke.BR ehla b Fun Q locomotive more
tha1 Hyo mileo An h0ul. q 0f carrying