The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1882-06-29
WHAT ELECTRICITY CAN 10.
a Servant That VIII Guido Even steam
In Usefulness.


machines rs source of electrical power
+ In place of the costly and feeble zinc
cells. seems destined TO last until the
winds and the tides shall furnish this
I power so cheaply that it will drive ma.
chinery. plough the fields, haul wood and
draw water, and SO will really do mans
hard work for him. The future value of
electricity is rated so high by clear. head.
od men Of science that even so good a
servant as steam has been to man sinks
by comparison into insigniiicauce. An
article in Biackioood's Magazine sets tho
matter before the unscientific reader in so
interesting q shape that the following
passages are worth quoting:
Electricity has long been subject
which had little interest except for the
lovers OF scientific research. A genera
ton has not yet altogether passed away
IN which all industrial use Of electricity
was unknown and the only practical
application acknowledge in regard to it was
not one to apply it usefully, but only to
check it's power ofdcstruction. Finy years
ago lightning conductors were the only
electric works in common use and the
proper construction Of these themselves
was so little Understood that to this day
such appliances are constantly made and
pnt up in the worst possible way for eff
fecting their purpose. Now all this is
changed. The thick network of wires
that distigures all our great cities is a
daily demonstration to all of electricity
being put to most important practical
uses, and our means of communication
are such as the most imaginative fairy
tale that ever was written could not excel
TOR wonders. But wonderful as has been
the development of the telegraph. it
appears likely that ere long we shall look
upon it as but one, and by no means the
most marvellous, of countless applica.
tiors of electricity. We seem to have
discovered giant whose powers are IL
limitable, yet whose strength can be ap.
piled to do the most delicate and subtle
work-who is always ready for duty, and
whose energies can be drawn out in n
thousand wnys-whose strength can be
generated at one place, and carried TO
another for Use, without serious loss
who can accumulate his vigor, so that, if
it is not employed for time, he can then
do work much harder than he could do
continuously-who will begin working,
and stop working, at touch-who will
bore out hardest rocks, and cary our gen.
tlest whisper 10 q friend miles away
who will be always docile, noiseless, nn-
tiring, never capricious and ever on the
alert.
mo doubt many will say, and many
do say, that the electrical world has got
excited, and is promising too much; that
insuperable difficulties will come in the
way; that when the temporary excitment
is over electricity will not be found to be
50 much more advantageous than other
| fnrcnQ n al in cf,
of pointing at cold water, aud good deal
of throwing of it. 1t is not much more
than sixty years since the most learned
men of the day gave evidence on the
subject of gas which to us now seems al
most comic. The Royal Society repor
ted, in 1914, that no gasometer larger
than 6,000 feet capacity should be per-
mitted. Such men as Sir Humphrey
Davy and Sir William Congreve gave
evidence before select committe that
gasometers of 10000 feet capacity were
too large for safety that they could not
understand the 'temerity' Of the Pari-
slams, who we're then building one of
800, 900 feet capacity-Sir Humphry de-
claring that 10000 was his limit, and
that he would be uneasy if he lived near
one Of 10000. Great fear was also ex-
pressed that if street lamp went out
the wind would enter the burner and
cause an explosion.
when Ronalds, about the year 1917,
laid his plans for All electric telegraph
before tho government, they would not
even take the trouble to investigate the
matter An undcrsecretary, in the usual
official style, informed him that he was
directed by his Majesly's secretary OF
State, &c, &c, to inform Mr.. Ronals that
q telegraph is of no use IN time Of peace,
and that in time of war the semaphore
then i'll use was quite sufficient for the
purpose In 1879 scientific men declar-
ed it would be found impossible to adapt
electric lighting to dwelling houses or
smallrooms But perhaps there is no
instance so remarkable Of this want OF
foresight and practical grasp which is
often displayed by the most able and
learned men, than what was said about
gaslight when it WAS first introduced
particularly rs what was then said of gas
is almost word for word the same kind oil
thing as some are now saying of electric
lighting. In 1919 Desormer wrote OF
gas:
"The light is Of disagreeable color, en-.
tirely different from the red and warm
CLEAN of our oil-lamps. 1t is of daz.
zling brightness its distribution will be
impossible and irregular, and it will be
much dearer than oil.lighting; and even
if it should be improved, it will still re.
main much dearer than those lights which
we already possess Z"
Substituting the word gas for 'oil,
and reading the passage as if electricity
were b eing spoken of instead of gas, the
kind of criticism which is now being
made on the electric light is exactly re,
produced-'cold, dazzling, impossible tc
distribute it, irregular, dear
"Till lately, the practical applications
Of electricity were limited to those ap
pliances which could be worked without
very much power. No means had beer
discovered for producing electric energy
in powerful form and in large quantity
with ease and cheapness. The modes il
use were cumbrous and expensive wher
applied on large scale-so much so O,
to debar their use for work requiring
great power. But in those department.
in which moderate quantity could bt
made use OF, enormous progress was made
from the time when the first great prac
tical use of electricity was begun in the
establishment of the electric telegraph
It seems to us now almost incredible
with our tens Of millions of telegram
yearly, that the Importance of this grea
step in science was so little underatoot
that, on the opening day of the frs
electric telegraph company in the world
in London, only two messages were hand
ed in for Transmission during Tia who'll
forenoon. But when the success of tn,
telegraph in securing the arrest of Tawell