The Worthington advance., 1882-07-27
WHAT ELECTRICITY CAN DO,

From Blackwood's Magazine.
Take once again the illustrations of a
waterwheel. In former days such a
wheel could give power to grind our
corn, or weave our cloth, or make our
paper, or crush our quartz, provided the
materials could be conveniently brought
to the water-power. Now, not only can
such water do the same work miles from
where it it running, by its power being
used to produce electricity; not only can
it work our clocks, drive pater familias
lathe and masters sewing machines
pump the water, turn the spit
work the dinner hoist in
our private houses, and thresh, grind,
spin, weave, and calender in our factor
ies-it can with ease do much more that
the water power could not do, even if
close at hand with the most complicated
appliances. 1t can make the running
water tar away ring our bells, regulate
our clocks, rectify our alcohol, plate our
spoons, gild our ornaments, multiply
our engraving plate, make permanent
our photographs, and work our ploughs
and our tram cars.
These are but illustrations of what can
be done and is being done. But even
here the wonders do not stop; for not
only will power such as water, when,
employed to produce electricity.
be available at a distance from the
place where it exists, and for purposes
which it conld not of itself strange
as it may sound, the power of water will
produce by its new application of heat
and light. A water wheel, by being en-
ployed to generate electricity, may light
our rooms, cook dinner, and ripen our
peaches. We can have light FROM it by
which We can work as easily at night as
in the day-a light which will neither
consume our fresh air, nor vitiate it with
foul gases, nor smoke our ceilings and
destroy ollr curtains; which can set fire
to nothing; the globe of which can he
hooked to an invalid's bed-curtain with
ont risk, or attached to flexible wires and
taken into the most confined corner to
give light to a workman, without danger
of fire.
It wonld fill a volume to state at
length all the practical advantages which
this development of electricity has
opened up already, and more than a vol
ume to state all that it may be expected
yet to accomplish Let it also be Under
stood that while the foregoing illustra-
tions have been stated in relation to wa
ter.pOWer, they are eqnally true
for any other power snch as steam
engine en- hum,g g"s'enYgins, Yggh%;, h%n hh%Grsep9we,
engine on farm can do the ploughing
hundreds Of yards off. The gas engine
that pumps water by day can light the
house at night. The horses that drag coal
rop.<o fnr +1
engine in some outlying place can be
machine, with no loss of time, and in
many cases with less waste of labor. The
convicts on tread mill can he doing
work by it in any part of, or even out.
side, the paison.
In a word, the power for work can be
generated by any ordinary means, and at
any place where the means exist, and
can then be economically conveyed to
the spot where it is to be nsefully ap-
piled, without loss oftime, and practical
~ In full strength. The tide on the shore
can do work inland; the stream in the
top; the Windmill the eminence can
Ito work in the valley; the horse in the
yard or the man in the ont house, can
do work in the dwelling. And with all
ITS power, and its universally of applica-
tion, this new servant which science has
supplied us with is the most docile O!
animals. A touch Of a lady's finger will
bring into action a power which q
thousand men could not resist; another
touch will stop its action or reverse It in
moment.
But even this is not all. This power
that can be thus used for a thousand diff
ferent practical purposes, and with count
less varieties in the mode of application,
cannot only be obtained freely, aid at a
moments notice, and at any place, and
in lllimitable quantity; it can also be
stored up when needful for future use
Within the past few years the problem
of producing electricity, and storing it
up for immediate use, has been practi.
cally solved; so that Sir William Thom-
son could in Glasgow perform powerful
mechanical work by electricity which had
been generated in Paris, and brought
ready for instant application from Paris
to Glasgow, just as Il clock wound up
abroad could be brought to this count ry
and set going here. OF course it will be
understood that this is only a popular
being presumed to be ut present only in
terested to know what can be done.
A scientific explanation of the process
would be out of place here. The fact it
is desired to impress upon the reader is,
that not only can the force of electricity
be carried far from the generating source
for immediate use by being conducted
along wires, but that it may be bolted
up in movable vessels, which can be car
ried like any other goods to distance,
and at once made available for any pur-
pose for which the electricity could have
been used at the spot at which it was
first produced. Electricity can be stored
in square cases, which can be conveyed
by hand or carriage to any spot where
it is required. The doctor can take his
bottled electricity to the sick room un-
der his arm to perform an operation.