The colored patriot., 1882-05-18
Electric Lamps.

lamns in the streets, we shall IND Ii
consists of two rods, one pointing up
ward from the bottom OF the lamp, the
other hanging downward. The rods
seem TO touch, and the brilliant flame
is exactly where they seem to meet.
Once dav a man comes around with
hao of the rods. He takes out the old
rods that were burned the night before,
and places a new set in each lamp.
After he has gone about, as II he were
nuttino new wicks into the lamps, and
each is ready for its nights work, all
/ the lamps are lighted in broad day, TO |
/ see that every one is IN proper trim.
/ They are allowed to burn until the men /
1 have walked about in the streets ana
1 looked at each lamp. If all are burning /
well. they are put out till 1t begins to |
GROW dark. If one fails to burn proper
r. a man goes to that lamp to see
What is the matter The rods are made
of a curious black substance like char
coal that is called carbon. When the
lamn is out the two rods touch each
other. In order to light the lamp, they
are pulled apart; and if you look at the
fame through a smoked glass, you Will
see that the rods do not quite touch
There is a small space between their
points. and this space is filled with lire.
Look at the other parts of the rods, or
the COPPER wires that extend along the
streets. They have no light, no heat,
no sound. The wires are cold, dark
and silent If we were to push the two
rods in the lamp close together, the
light and heat would disappear ana the
curious Kissing sound would stop. why
is this? Let us 90 into the woods near
some brook, and it may be that we can
understand this matter.
Here is the brook, flowing quietly
along, smooth, deep and without rip
, pie We walk beside the stream, ana
come to a place where there are hlgA
rocks, and steep, stony banks. Here
! the channel is very narrow, ana the
> water is no longer smooth and silent
, It boils and foams between the rocks.
, There are eddies and whirlpOOls, and at
q last we come to the narrOWest part OF
all. Here, the once dark and silent
! water roars and fOams in white, stormy
! rapids. There are sounds and furious
a leapng and rushing water and clouds
a of spray. What is the natter why
q is the smooth, dark water so white with
race, SO impetuous, so full of sounds
and turmoil? The rocks are the cause.
The way is narrow and steep. 1he
Q waters are hemmed in, and there is
grand display of flashing white foam
and roaring waterfalls, as the waters
1t struggle together to get past the narrow
place.
e It is the same with the electricity
l, flowing through the large copper wires
-e 1t passes down one wire into the other
le THROUGH the lamp, in silence and dark
L. ness. SO long as the rods touch and th'
ut oath is clear. When the rods in th'
1t lamp are pulled apart, there is a space
t TO be rot over, an obstruction, like rock
)r in the bed of the brook. The electric
f. itv. like the water, struggles to get owe
Of The hindrance in its path, and it grow
~ white-h with anger, and flames an
u Kisses as it leaps across the narrow spac
It. between the rods.
T. There is another kind of electri
to lamp, used in houses; it has smalle
nit and softer light, steady, white and yer
We beautiful.
a In these lamps, also, we have some
r. thing like the narrow place IN I'd
es brook. They are made with slende
on loops of carbon, inclOsed in glaS
tie rlobes The electricity, flowing sllen
IS, " through dark wire, enters tn
IS. lamp. and finds only narrow thread o
at which it can travel to reach the home
en- going wire, and, in its struggle to g
no bast, it heats the tiny thread OF carbo
OF to whiteness Like a live coal, tn
ta- slender thread gives us a mild so
:" light, as long as the current flows
gle seems calm and still, but it is endurlr
till the same fury of the electricity that
est show in the larger lamps.
he This is the main idea on which tines
use lamps are made: A stream OF clectrlcl
OF is set flowing from dynamo-electr
," machine through wire until it meets
ler barrow place or a break in the wiz
MI Then it seeks to get past the obstru
va ton, and there is a grand putting Tor
eur of energy, and in this way the electl
nld force, although itself invisible, is m ma a
in known to our eyes by n beautiful hgf
alto -CharIcs Barnard, IN ST. Nicholas.