St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1881-06-03
The Future of Electricity.

AT meeting of the Society of Arts
i'll London, Professor John Perry read
a paper which was illustrated by MANY
experiments, "On the future develop
ment of Electrical Appliances" He
said electrical energy can he transmit
ted to distance, and even to many
thousands of miles, but can it be trans
formed ut the distant place into me
chanical or any other required form of
energy nearly equal in amount to what
was supplied Unfortunately, hither-
to the practical answer made by exist
ing machines is "NO." But, fortu-
nately, Joule's experiments and other
facts tell us that in electric machines of
the future and in their connecting
wires, there will he little heating, and
therefore little loss. We shall, mt no
distant date, have great central sta
tions, possibly situated at the bottom
of coal-pits, where enormous steam
engines will drive enormous electric
machines. We shall have wires laid
along every street, Tapped into every
house, us gas-pipeS are ut present we
shall have the quantity of elcctrici-
ty used in each house registered, as gas
is mt present and it will he passed
through little electric machines to drive
machinery, to produce ventilation, to
replace stoves and fires, to work apple
parers and mangles, and BARRIERS
brushes, among other things, as well
as to give everybody an electric light.
1t had been supposed that to transmit
the power of Niagara Falls to New
York Il copper cable of enormous thick
ness would he needed. Professor AYR
ton showed that the whole power might
he transmitted by Il fine copper wire,
if it could only he sufficiently well in
sulated. He also showed that the one
thing preventing our receiving the
whole of our power was the mechani-
cal friction which occurs in the ma
chimes. He showed, in fact, how to
get rid of electrical friction. Professor
AyrtOn and himself had come to the
conclusion that very large continuous
current machines, with separate eX-
clters, or perhaps even magnetic -elcc-
tric machines, driven very fast by steam
engines, Will have an important place
III the future transmission of energy
by electrical methods. With such ma
chimes it would be possible to heat
light, and ventilate all the houses in
New York, and to give to large and
small workshops the power required to
drive their machinery by means of an
ordinary telegraph wire (but with some
exceptionally good method of insula-
tion), transmitting energy from us
great Il distance us the Falls of Niagara
The experiments of DR.. Sicmcns show
ed that there could he no doubt that
the introduction of electric railways
everywhere was merely Il question of
capital and the sacrifice of much exist
ing plant. This kind of proof was
needed by capitalists. But the elec-
trician saw much further he saw bet,
ter insulation for the conductor, and
application of the above principals to
hundreds of miles of rails instead of Il
thousand yards he saw, in fact, that
the larger the experiment the greater
must he its success. He looked for
ward to the absence of vitiated atmoS-
phere i'll our underground railways
He saw that the weight of rails (for
there would be no heavy locomotive in
the future, each carriage would have
its own driving and breaking ma
chinery) and the cost of bridges and
wear and tear of permanent way might
become less than One-quarter of what
they are at present he saw, i'll fact,
all the advantages that would arise
when, instead of making Il heavy steam
engine travel backwards and forwards
with carriages, the carriages alone
travel, and the steam engine is not
near the railway ut all. The lecturer
concluded by exhibiting models to
illustrate his belief that it will become
possible by electricity to enable Il man
i'll London to see an occurrence going
on in IL distant town.